Yemen's Houthi rebels claim responsibility for an attack on Saudi Arabian oil facilities.
Yemen
Yemen, officially the Republic of Yemen, is a country in West Asia. Including the Socotra Archipelago, mainland Yemen is located in southern Arabia; bordering Saudi Arabia to the north, Oman to the northeast, the south-eastern part of the Arabian Sea to the east, the Gulf of Aden to the south, and the Red Sea to the west, sharing maritime borders with Djibouti, Eritrea, and Somalia across the Horn of Africa. Covering roughly 455,503 square kilometres, with a coastline of approximately 2,000 kilometres, Yemen is the second largest country on the Arabian Peninsula. Sanaa is its constitutional capital and largest city. Yemen's estimated population is 34.7 million, mostly Arab Muslims. It is a member of the Arab League, the United Nations, the Non-Aligned Movement and the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation.
Houthi insurgency
The Houthi insurgency, also known as the Sa'dah Wars, was a military rebellion pitting Zaidi Shia Houthis that began in northern Yemen and has since escalated into a full-scale civil war. The conflict was sparked in 2004 by the government's attempt to arrest Hussein al-Houthi, a Zaidi religious leader of the Houthis and a former parliamentarian on whose head the government had placed a $55,000 bounty.
Abqaiq–Khurais attack
On 14 September 2019, drones were used to attack oil processing facilities at Abqaiq and Khurais (خريص) in eastern Saudi Arabia. The facilities were operated by Saudi Aramco, the country's state-owned oil company. The Houthi movement in Yemen claimed responsibility, tying it to events surrounding the Saudi intervention in the Yemeni Civil War where Saudi Arabia caused a famine and killed 200,000 Yemeni people. Saudi Arabian officials said that many more drones and cruise missiles were used for the attack and originated from the north and east, and that they were of Iranian manufacture. The United States and Saudi Arabia have stated that Iran was behind the attack while France, Germany, and the United Kingdom jointly stated Iran bears responsibility for it. Iran has denied any involvement. The situation exacerbated the 2019 Persian Gulf crisis.