Wire reporting: (Reuters, via KSL)

Gulf stock markets fell in early trade on Wednesday after Yemen's Houthis said they had struck Saudi Arabia's Ras Tanura oil refinery, Reuters reported¹.

The Houthis said Tuesday they hit the kingdom's largest refinery, a 550,000-barrel-per-day complex on the Gulf, with a ballistic missile^2,5. Military spokesperson Yahya Saree said the strike caused a fire at the site, which also includes a shipping terminal west of the Strait of Hormuz^2,4.

Saudi authorities did not immediately confirm a strike^2,6. Bloomberg, cited by KSL and Al-Monitor, reported a person familiar with the matter as saying a fire near the Ras Tanura terminal had been contained^2,4. Al-Monitor said the extent of any damage was not immediately clear⁴.

Saree, in Al-Monitor's account, said the strike caused "massive fires"⁴. Ras Tanura was shut for a period earlier in the Iran war as a precaution, and nearly all Saudi oil exports move through Ras Tanura or Yanbu on the Red Sea, both previously targeted by the Houthis, according to the Reuters report carried by KSL².

The Houthis also said they attacked Saudi military aircraft, including transport jets at Najran Airport and an airbase in Khamis Mushait, and that they had pushed back Saudi-backed forces near the Bab el-Mandeb Strait^2,5. There was no immediate Saudi confirmation of those claims².

Saudi civil defense briefly issued an air-raid alert in Riyadh on Tuesday afternoon². The Saudi-led coalition said it intercepted two ballistic missiles aimed at the capital^2,5. Al-Monitor's Reuters copy said falling debris from intercepts damaged a building, a construction site and a vehicle⁵.

Reuters said the market drop reflected renewed concern that Middle East fighting could widen¹. Independent confirmation of damage at Ras Tanura, and any effect on crude flows, had not been established in the accounts reviewed^2,4.