ERBIL, Kurdistan Region of Iraq – Houthi spokesperson Yahya Saree on Saturday said the Iran-backed group carried out two operations against Saudi Arabia, targeting “sensitive sites” in Riyadh, and the state-owned oil giant Aramco in the port city of Yanbu, west of the country.

Earlier on Saturday, explosions were heard in Riyadh after Saudi authorities issued their first air raid alert in the capital since fighting returned to neighbouring Yemen.

Saree said the two operations targeting “sensitive sites in Riyadh” and “Aramco facilities in Yanbu” were “successful and resulted in massive fires at the targeted locations.”

He said that the attacks were retribution for Saudi airstrikes “which have reached 732 airstrikes up to date,” and attacks on Sanaa.

Fighting reignited between the Iran-backed Houthis and Saudi-backed government forces in July, during the same time, the Houthis also declared a maritime blockade on Saudi Arabia and started targeting ships in the Red Sea.

The Saudi-led military coalition in Yemen, which has lost large swathes of Red Sea territory to a major Houthi offensive, on Wednesday said that Saudi forces intercepted and destroyed a “hostile drone” before it entered the airspace of Mecca, the holiest city in Islam and a destination for millions of pilgrims annually.

The prospective drone attack drew extensive international condemnation, with Riyadh directly accusing the Houthis of its orchestration, despite the Iran-backed group's vehement denial and insistence that its strikes on the kingdom are limited to military infrastructure and oil pipelines.

Having enjoyed a tentative peace for years following a UN-backed truce in Yemen's decade-long civil war, tensions between Riyadh and the Houthis flared following an airstrike on Sanaa International Airport that prevented an Iranian plane from landing in mid-July.

Since that juncture, Saudi Arabia has conducted myriad airstrikes targeting the group and seeking to bolster the internationally backed Yemeni government, while the Houthis have imposed a maritime blockade on Saudi transit in the Red Sea, the effectiveness of which was enhanced following their seizure of key port areas such as the city of Mokha in September.