Iran seizes US submarine drone, Houthis hit four Saudi cities

CAIRO/DUBAI: Yemen's Tehran-backed Houthis attacked four cities in the south of US ally Saudi Arabia on Tuesday, wounding 73 people and setting oil installations ablaze in what appeared to be a major expansion of the six-month-old West Asia war.

Later in the day, Iran's Revolutionary Guards said they seized an American submarine drone in the strategic Strait of Hormuz, which Tehran has blockaded in the months-long Middle East war.

"The IRGC naval forces captured one of the most modern, unmanned, and smart submarines of the US terrorist army at the entrance to the Strait of Hormuz in a complex intelligence and operational action at dawn today," the Guards said in a statement carried by state TV.


"This smart submarine is equipped with the latest technology in the subsurface field in the world, which was delivered to the US terrorist army fleet in 2025," the statement added. "This submarine has now been captured and images of it will be released in the coming hours."

Iranian media reported that the unmanned underwater vehicle's main capabilities included "subsurface reconnaissance and surveillance, seabed mapping, mine detection and inspection of submarine cables and pipelines."

Major escalation

The escalation of hostilities in the region bordering Yemen is already deepening worries about additional supply disruptions as energy shipments through the Strait of Hormuz remain restricted. Brent was trading at $97.7 at 8:26 PM on Tuesday. Earlier in the day, it reached $99.46, the highest since July 24.

While the targets appear to include infrastructure that supply the local Saudi demand, repeated attacks on Jazan, where a major refinery is located, are a concern for the oil market.

73 wounded

The Houthis said they had launched a broad operation deep into Saudi territory. They used drones and missiles to strike a Saudi airbase in the southern city of Khamis Mushait, and targets belonging to Saudi Arabia's state oil company in nearby Abha, Najran on the Yemeni border, and Jazan, a major Red Sea port city that houses a large refinery and power plant.

NASA satellite images showed a thick cloud of black smoke over the Jazan refinery and a column of white smoke rising from an oil distribution centre in Abha.

Saudi Arabia halted several energy facilities in the south.

Israel to Close UK Consulate

Israel said on Tuesday it was closing Britain's consulate in East Jerusalem in response to plans by the UK, France and Canada to block imports from Israeli settlements in the West Bank. Britain will also no longer participate in a US-led coordination mission for Gaza

"The British move is morally distorted, and constitutes blatant interference in the affairs of a sovereign state and its electoral process," he said, describing comments by Foreign Secretary Ed Miliband about ethnic cleansing of Palestinians by Israel as accusations that were "outrageous lies".