Yemen's Iran-backed Houthis said on Wednesday they had targeted facilities belonging to Saudi oil giant Aramco as well as Riyadh airport, as they vowed to conduct more attacks.

"The Yemeni Armed Forces carried out a high-quality military operation targeting Aramco in Dhahran, in the Eastern Province, King Khalid International Airport, and the Aramco refinery in Riyadh. This was carried out using a large number of ballistic missiles, cruise missiles and drones," military spokesperson Yahya Saree said, adding "operations toward Saudi depths will continue in the coming days, targeting Saudi enemy airports and oil facilities".

The United States is helping Russia in its war with Ukraine, a senior Ukrainian official told AFP on Wednesday, blaming Washington for not warning Kyiv about incoming strikes and slowing Starlink.

"There have already been two cases where the Americans did not provide warnings about Russian ballistic launches, a massive ballistic attack against our energy sector... And on top of that they've throttled Starlink speeds," said the official, who asked not to be identified.

Colombia on Wednesday officially opened its embassy in Jerusalem, joining a small but growing list of countries to do so while most other embassies to Israel remain in Tel Aviv.

"This is an important date for the State of Israel. It's also an important date for the city of Jerusalem," Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Saar said during a ceremony while signing the embassy's guest book.

Loud explosions were heard in the Saudi capital Riyadh on Wednesday, AFP journalists in the city reported, as Yemen's Houthis step up attacks in an escalating war.

Messages were received on phones in Riyadh warning people of an "aerial threat" and urging them to take shelter. The alert was lifted a few minutes later.

Massive Russian strikes on Ukraine on Wednesday left some 600,000 people without power and deliberately flouted a purported "energy ceasefire" announced by Donald Trump, President Volodymyr Zelensky said.

"A targeted Russian ballistic missile strike specifically against energy infrastructure –- the very infrastructure covered by the ceasefire announced by the American President," he wrote on X.

The Red Cross called Tuesday for urgent de-escalation in the Middle East, warning that further fighting would be disastrous for tens of millions of civilians.

Yemen's civil war -- in which a Saudi-led military coalition supports the government against the Iran-backed Houthis -- reignited in July, months into the wider regional conflict that has roiled energy markets and plunged the Middle East into crisis.

The Saudi-led military coalition fighting Yemen's Houthis said Tuesday that its forces intercepted three drones north of the capital Riyadh.

"Interception and destruction of 3 drones north of Riyadh city," Major General Turki al-Maliki, a spokesman for the coalition, wrote on X.

Hezbollah announced on Tuesday an aid program for Lebanese who lost their homes in the war with Israel, with benefits capped at $14,000 per household, despite U.S. and Lebanese sanctions on the militant group.

The announcement also comes despite U.S. sanctions on Iran, which backs Hezbollah with weapons and resources, and tighter controls by the Lebanese authorities on Hezbollah's funding and supply routes, after the group emerged weakened from two wars with Israel since 2023.

The Committee to Protect Journalists on Tuesday urged pressure on Israel including potential economic consequences if it does not hold responsible troops behind a deadly 2023 strike on reporters in Lebanon.

A Reuters journalist was killed and two AFP reporters were seriously wounded when they came under fire in southern Lebanon close to the border with Israel on October 13, 2023.

Hezbollah MP Ibrahim al-Moussawi said that self-defense is "a natural right" after the army and security forces seized explosives suspected of belonging to Hezbollah, while rejecting claims that the group is planning assassinations.

"If it is true (that the explosives belong to Hezbollah), the resistance feels no shame," he said, adding that "self-defense is a natural right for the resistance as long as the attacks continue, Israeli forces remain on Lebanese soil, and the government and military are unable to confront them".