Yahya Saree, the spokesman for Yemen’s army, said in a televised address on Friday that an operation dubbed “The first operation to break the siege” had been carried against Saudi Arabia in retaliation for the intensified aggression and the banning of fuel ships from entering the impoverished country.

The spokesman said nine drones — three of them of the Sammad-3 type — targeted a Saudi Aramco refinery in the capital, Riyadh. He added that the Yemeni forces also targeted facilities belonging to Aramco in the southwestern regions of Jizan and Abha, as well as other “sensitive” positions in the kingdom, using six Sammad-1 drones.

Saree vowed that the Yemeni forces “would not hesitate to respond to the unjust siege” imposed on their country.

He further said the Yemeni forces were on high alert to carry out military operations in response to the ban imposed on Yemen-bound petroleum products.

But he did not specify when the operation had taken place.

Earlier on Friday, Saudi state news agency SPA cited an Energy Ministry official as saying that a drone attack had targeted a refinery in Riyadh on Thursday morning, claiming that it had not affected the supplies of petroleum and its derivatives.