Iran-Linked Telegram Channel ‘Car Online’ Urges Yemenis to Strike Saudi Aramco After U.S. Strikes Nuclear Sites

A Telegram-based social media channel called Car Online, linked to Iranian information operations, is now urging Yemeni actors to launch missile attacks on Saudi Aramco oil facilities. The shift follows the U.S. bombing of three Iranian nuclear sites - Fordow, Natanz, and Isfahan - in a coordinated operation earlier this week.

According to a report published by the Foundation for Defense of Democracies (FDD), the Car Online Telegram channel pivoted its messaging two days after the airstrikes, shifting its focus from anti-Israel propaganda to incitement targeting Saudi Arabia. The channel now distributes material calling on Yemeni followers - specifically those aligned with the Houthis - to target Aramco infrastructure, framing it as an economic proxy of U.S. power.

FDD researchers noted that Car Online previously guided users on how to create fictitious social media accounts and use generative AI tools like ChatGPT to translate disinformation into Hebrew, as part of a campaign during the recent Iran–Israel conflict. Its current messaging reportedly includes template articles advocating retaliation against Saudi Arabia and the United States, naming Saudi Aramco as a primary target.

Though no attack has yet occurred, the threat comes amid a backdrop of prior assaults on Aramco infrastructure by Iranian-aligned forces. The most significant of these was the coordinated drone and missile strike on Abqaiq and Khurais in September 2019, which temporarily disabled nearly 5% of global oil supply.

While Yemen’s Houthi rebels claimed responsibility at the time, investigations by both Saudi Arabia and the U.S. Department of Defense concluded that the weapons used were Iranian-manufactured and launched from the north - not from Yemeni territory. The Saudi Ministry of Defense presented recovered cruise missile and drone components as physical evidence, asserting that the attack was "unquestionably sponsored by Iran."

The Car Online campaign now appears to be invoking that history in a bid to justify renewed targeting of Saudi oil assets as part of a broader Iranian information and proxy warfare strategy.

As of publication, neither Saudi Aramco nor the Saudi Ministry of Energy has issued a public statement in response to the campaign.

Written by Mordechai Nyamekye