Iraqi Militias Strike Saudi Oil Pipeline As Iran War Spreads

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Iranian-backed militias in Iraq just opened a new front in the Iran war — and they hit Saudi Arabia where it hurts most.

The militias struck the Saudi East-West oil pipeline with drones, dealing a critical blow to the kingdom’s main workaround for the crippled Strait of Hormuz, according to CNN reporting citing two U.S. officials. Satellite images posted on X confirm the pumping station was completely destroyed.

The oil pumping station on the Saudi East-West pipeline was completely destroyed during yesterday’s attack, according to satellite imagery released today. This is incredibly important news, as the East-West pipeline can transport up to approximately 210 million barrels of crude oil per day.

The new assault compounds the pressure already being applied by the Houthi Rebels, who have been hammering Saudi oil refineries, storage facilities, and pipelines since July. With the Strait of Hormuz choked and the Red Sea increasingly hostile, the East-West Pipeline was Saudi Arabia’s last major escape route for crude exports.

Now that route is under fire.

Although it remains unconfirmed who launched the strikes, the drones came from Iraq, CNN reported. The most likely culprit: the Popular Mobilization Forces (PMF), an Iraqi militia with direct ties to Iran, according to the Institute for the Study of War.

Saudi Aramco, the Saudi Embassy in Washington, and the Iraqi Embassy in Washington did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

The extent of the damage remains unclear — and so does the repair timeline, CNN reported citing U.S. officials. But the timing couldn’t be worse.

The East-West Pipeline had already been pushed to its maximum capacity of 7 million barrels per day during the first quarter of 2026 as Saudi Arabia scrambled to bypass disruptions in the Strait of Hormuz. Aramco CEO Amin Nasser described the pipeline as a “critical supply artery” that had helped mitigate the global energy shock, according to Aramco.

The pipeline terminates at Yanbu, a major Saudi oil-export hub on the kingdom’s western Red Sea coast. The route allows Saudi crude to bypass the Strait of Hormuz entirely — making it increasingly vital as Persian Gulf shipping remains disrupted.

Saudi crude and condensate loadings from Yanbu climbed to an estimated 3.7 million barrels per day in early September, according to Vortexa data cited by Reuters. Yanbu has become the kingdom’s primary lifeline around the Strait of Hormuz.

But Yanbu itself is increasingly exposed.

The Houthis have made serious advances within Yemen, taking over the entire coastline and seizing territory around the Bab el-Mandeb Strait, according to the Institute for the Study of War. The group has already demonstrated the missile and drone capability to strike oil facilities deep inside Saudi Arabia, Reuters reported.

Any sustained Houthi campaign against shipping moving to or from Yanbu could therefore threaten the kingdom’s principal alternative export route around the Strait of Hormuz.

The numbers tell the story: Saudi Arabia’s crude supply plunged by 2.3 million barrels per day in August to roughly 6 million barrels per day — its lowest level in more than three decades, according to the International Energy Agency.

Although the U.S. military has not resumed direct attacks on the Houthis, it has allegedly begun providing targeting data for the Saudi Arabian Air Force, CNN reported citing five sources familiar with the operations. More than 100 U.S. military advisers are currently located in Saudi Arabia, aiding the kingdom in targeting the Houthis, according to the outlet.

The Houthis have survived previous attempts by the U.S. military to destroy their ability to threaten Red Sea shipping. The Pentagon conducted more than 1,000 strikes against Houthi targets during the Trump administration’s 2025 campaign before an Oman-brokered agreement ended the operation in May, according to Pentagon records.

The Houthi rebels attacked U.S. warships over 170 times and commercial vessels 145 times between 2023 and 2025, former Chief Pentagon Spokesman Sean Parnell said during a press conference on March 17, 2025.

The Houthis kicked off their naval campaign against Saudi shipping with a bang on July 22, striking the Saudi-owned Encelia oil tanker. The vessel caught fire after the strike, according to videos posted on X.

With traffic through the Strait of Hormuz severely constrained, Saudi Arabia has increasingly rerouted crude through its East-West Pipeline to the Red Sea, helping push oil flows through Bab el-Mandeb from roughly 5.4 million barrels per day in late 2025 to 8.1 million barrels per day in the second quarter of 2026, according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration.

That workaround just got a lot harder.

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