Houthi attacks put Yemeni oil facilities in peril

ADEN, Yemen — Yemen's economic facilities, particularly oil ports controlled by the Saudi-backed Yemeni government, are facing a heightened threat of Houthi rebel militia's missile attacks just 20 days after a UN-brokered truce expired in the war-ravaged Arab country.

In a new military escalation, two loud explosions ripped through a key government-controlled oil port of Dhabah in Yemen's southeastern Hadramout Province on Friday following a Houthi attack with two explosive-laden drones.

The drone attack occurred as local authorities were preparing a new shipment of oil exports to the global markets, Yemeni security officials told Xinhua News Agency.

Houthi military spokesman Yahya Saree claimed responsibility for the attack just hours after the attack, prompting a public outcry and strong condemnation from the Yemeni government.

"In a clear military warning message to stop the stealing of Yemeni oil, the strikes were aimed at targeting the area between the oil ship and the port buoy," Saree said.

"The ship had breached the orders issued previously by the ruling authorities in Sanaa to prohibit the transfer and export of Yemen's sovereign oil derivatives," he said, adding that the warning strike was intended to stop any further attempts to exploit and loot Yemen's oil wealth.

Saree also urged "all domestic and foreign oil corporations to strictly abide by Sanaa's rulings and refrain from the plundering of Yemen's wealth".

The Houthi drone attack was strongly condemned by the internationally recognized Yemeni government, which vowed in a statement on Friday that "all options remain open" as a result of the military escalation.

After the attack, Yemen's Minister of Foreign Affairs Ahmed Awad Bin Mubarak spoke on the phone with United Nations Special Envoy for Yemen Hans Grundberg to discuss "the repercussions of Iran-backed Houthi militias' attacks on the oil facilities in the country and threats to international navigation".

Earlier this month, Grundberg announced that no agreement had been reached to renew the expired truce between Yemen's warring parties, which went into force on April 2, and then renewed twice until Oct 2.

In a separate development, an explosion struck an ambulance carrying a medic team of the southern pro-government Yemeni forces in southern Abyan province on Saturday, killing five medics on board, a security official told Xinhua. No group has claimed responsibility for bombing the military medical team yet.

Xinhua