Yemen's Houthis just said they hit Saudi Arabia's oil giant in Riyadh

Yemen's Houthis say they just hit a Saudi Aramco facility in Riyadh.

Ballistic missiles and drones, they say.

And a few hours ago, witnesses saw smoke and fire rising near an Aramco site in the Saudi capital.

So those two things sound like the same event. Here's the problem. Nobody has confirmed that yet.

Yahya Saree, the Houthi military spokesperson, made the statement on television. He says the operation hit its targets and caused fires at the sites.

A Reuters witness saw a large plume of smoke and fire near an Aramco facility in Riyadh. An AFP journalist separately saw flames and smoke at Aramco's Riyadh refinery, south of the capital. Firefighters were working the site. Ambulances and police were nearby.

But here's the gap. A fire is burning. The Houthis say they caused it. Those are still two separate facts, not one confirmed one.

As of 20:00 GMT, Saudi Arabia had said nothing about the Houthi statement. Aramco didn't respond to a request for comment either. And no group had taken responsibility for the fire itself, separately from the Houthi statement about an attack.

So right now: a fire near an Aramco site in Riyadh. A Houthi statement that they lit it. And silence from Saudi Arabia on both.

Yahya Saree says the strike was payback for Saudi attacks on Sanaa and other Yemeni provinces. He says 60 Saudi strikes hit Sanaa and other provinces in the last 24 hours, taking the total to 1,420, and he's blaming Saudi Arabia for all of them.

Houthi-run Al-Masirah TV gave a different number for the same 24 hours — 26 strikes on Sanaa. Both figures come from the Houthi side. Neither is confirmed by Saudi Arabia.

Yahya Saree says the Houthis respond to blockade with blockade, and escalation with escalation.

That's the Houthis saying this is a trade. Strike for strike. And they plan to keep trading.