France has begun implementing operational measures under an agreement to help protect Saudi Arabia’s oil facilities, Foreign Ministry spokesperson Pascal Confavreux said, as tensions involving Yemen’s Houthi forces and Saudi Arabia continue to escalate.
Confavreux declined to provide details about the resources deployed to Saudi Arabia. French President Emmanuel Macron said last month that France would send troops and defence systems to help protect Yanbu, a Red Sea port city that serves as a key energy transport hub.
The latest developments come amid renewed Houthi claims of military operations and warnings from the Saudi-led coalition over attacks on Saudi territory.
The coalition’s spokesperson, Major General Turki al-Maliki, said that attacks by the Houthis on Saudi airports could have consequences for regional security. He called on the group to stop targeting the airports and linked its military activities to wider regional tensions over control of strategic waterways.
Al-Maliki also said that 17 people were killed in attacks on King Khalid International Airport in Riyadh between October 7 and 11.
Separately, the Saudi-led coalition said that its forces had intercepted and destroyed a drone launched towards Saudi Arabia’s Eastern Province. The source of the drone and whether the incident caused any damage were not immediately specified.
Yemen’s Houthi armed forces, meanwhile, claimed to have shot down a Saudi Wing Loong II armed reconnaissance drone over Marib governorate. In a statement posted on Telegram, Houthi military spokesperson Yahya Saree said that the aircraft had been conducting what he called “hostile activities” in the area’s airspace. He said that it was brought down using a “suitable weapon” but provided no further details.
The Houthis, officially known as Ansar Allah, also claimed responsibility for an attack on government headquarters in Aden. Saree said that the building housed a “Saudi war operations room” and warned that Saudi military or economic presence in Yemen would be a legitimate target.
Yemen’s prime minister was reportedly unharmed in the attack. He condemned it as a “terrorist attack” intended to disrupt state institutions and obstruct efforts to reverse what he described as a “terrorist coup” against the internationally recognised government.
He vowed to continue military operations until “every square inch of Yemen” was recovered from Houthi control. The group seized the capital, Sanaa, in 2014, triggering a conflict that has drawn in regional powers.
