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Saudi Arabia said on Wednesday that a Houthi attack struck an Aramco administrative building in Dhahran, causing a limited fire, while debris from two intercepted cruise missiles injured four people and damaged 15 homes in Riyadh.

A Saudi energy ministry official said the building belonging to the state oil giant was hit on Tuesday evening. The official said the fire was limited and that there were no casualties or deaths at the site.

Saudi civil defence said the people wounded in the capital were two women, a man and a child. It said the injuries resulted from debris from two Houthi cruise missiles that were intercepted over Riyadh.

The Saudi-led coalition fighting Yemen's Houthis had said hours earlier that it intercepted several missiles on Tuesday evening, including missiles over the capital. A powerful blast was then heard in Riyadh, and residents received a phone alert stating that the city faced a hostile aerial threat.

A witness walking on a major Riyadh avenue told AFP that he saw a projectile cross the sky above a mall. He said it left a yellowish light trail followed by smoke before an explosion was heard.

“People were calm; no one was speaking. We were scared and all looking up at the sky,” the witness said, requesting anonymity.

Coalition strikes in Yemen

Earlier on Tuesday, the coalition carried out strikes on oil sites in western Yemen following what the report described as the deadliest attack on Saudi soil in years.

The targets included facilities in Sanaa and the western provinces of Dhamar and Saada. Coalition spokesman Turki Al Maliki said in a post on X that the sites were used to supply the Houthis’ war effort and to threaten Saudi Arabia, Yemen, the southern Red Sea and waterways.

After recent Houthi attacks on Saudi airports and energy facilities, the coalition issued its first evacuation order in the Yemeni capital since the war flared in July. It subsequently struck a Yemen Petroleum Company facility on the outskirts of Sanaa.

An AFP correspondent in Sanaa reported hearing an explosion. Houthi-affiliated Al-Masirah TV said in a breaking-news alert that “Saudi aggression” had targeted the oil company.

Airport attack and new warnings

The escalation followed a strike on Riyadh’s international airport on Saturday that killed 13 people and suspended operations. It was described as the worst attack of its kind since 2015.

At a cabinet meeting led by Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman earlier on Tuesday, Saudi Arabia said it would not allow threats to its security or to freedom of navigation in the Red Sea and Bab al-Mandab Strait.

The Houthis had warned that they would target Riyadh’s international airport, a refinery and an Aramco facility in Dammam if the coalition strike went ahead. The group urged civilians to avoid those locations.

In Sanaa, AFP reported that civilians concerned about possible fuel shortages queued at petrol stations following the coalition’s warning. The renewed conflict has also raised concern about public health conditions in Yemen, where the World Health Organization said on Tuesday that suspected cholera cases had tripled in three weeks, increasing pressure on hospitals already treating people wounded in the fighting.

Economic pressure and international response

Riyadh’s normally congested roads were noticeably quieter this week, according to AFP journalists, after remote learning was introduced for all schools and some companies implemented work-from-home orders.

Saudi Arabia was already under pressure from Iran’s chokehold on the Hormuz Strait since the Middle East war began in February, when the United States and Israel attacked Iran. The resumption of Yemen’s previously frozen war in July has further unsettled the kingdom and brought attacks onto Saudi territory.

Houthi attacks have also targeted oil tankers in the Red Sea, described as Saudi Arabia’s alternative oil-export route. Several countries have issued travel advisories for Saudi Arabia, with France most recently advising its citizens to avoid the airports in Riyadh, Jeddah and Dammam.

The Riyadh airport attack led US President Donald Trump to say he was considering joining Saudi strikes against the Houthis. In a Truth Social post on Tuesday, Trump said the Houthis were “behaving very badly” and accused them of acting “probably at the behest of Iran”.

“I'll be there after the elections, and I will never forget!” Trump wrote, referring to next month’s midterm elections.

The Houthis warned the United States against intervening. Mohammed Al Bukhaiti, a member of the group’s political bureau, told AFP that American interests in the region would be targeted if Washington became involved.

Al Bukhaiti said the campaign against Saudi targets was intended to tell the crown prince “that he can no longer wage aggression against Yemen from a safe position”.