“An explosion led to a ball of flame.” The truth about a video attributed to Saudi strikes on Sanaa

A video clip spread on social media claiming to show scenes of Saudi strikes on the Yemeni capital, Sanaa, on Tuesday. The video, which has received hundreds of thousands of views on X alone, shows a massive explosion and fireball rising over the Sanaa skyline, accompanied by a description that reads: “Air strikes target the oil company in Al-Sabaha, west of Sanaa, after the coalition warns to evacuate.”

By splitting the video into still shots and using a reverse search, we found a version of it posted on Facebook in August 2025. At that time, Israeli raids on Sanaa occurred on August 24, in response to missiles fired by the Houthis into Israel, killing at least two people and wounding others.

There are also video clips taken from different angles of the same strikes at that time. The Israeli army said at the time that its strikes targeted a military complex that includes the presidential palace, two power plants and a fuel storage site.

The video returned to circulation in conjunction with the “Al-Masirah” channel affiliated with the Iranian-backed Yemeni Houthi group, on Tuesday, reporting “Saudi” strikes targeting the oil company west of Sanaa, shortly after the Saudi-led “Coalition to Support Legitimacy” issued an evacuation order for the site. The military spokesman for the Houthis, Yahya Saree, also quoted a source in the oil company as saying, "The company's station in Al-Sabahah is empty of oil derivatives and there is no military value to the targeting."

Later, on Tuesday, the Saudi-led “Coalition to Support Legitimacy in Yemen” accused the Iran-backed Houthi group of using civilian objects to “fuel the arsenal of missiles and drones” that targeted Saudi Arabia in recent days. The coalition issued a statement, in which its spokesman, Turki al-Maliki, said, “The terrorist Houthi militia uses civilian objects and vital resources to fuel its war effort.”

He added that among those objects was the “Al-Sabahah Oil Station,” which was targeted by the coalition. The attacks of the Yemeni Houthi group, allied with Iran, on Saudi Arabia escalated during the past week, targeting airports and vital installations, resulting in deaths and hundreds of injuries, in a development that kept King Khalid International Airport in Riyadh closed.