Houthis Say They Targeted Aramco Refinery In Riyadh With Drone

The Iran-aligned Houthi rebels in Yemen say that they targeted Saudi Aramco’s refinery in the Saudi capital Riyadh with a long-range drone on Wednesday, Houthi-run media outlet Almasirah reported.

Early on Thursday local time, the same outlet quoted a spokesman of the Houthis as saying that the “new long range Drone, Sammad 2, that targeted Aramco in Riyadh is a successful and qualitative experience.”

Saudi Aramco said on Twitter on Wednesday that “Saudi Aramco fire protection crews and Civil Defense have successfully controlled a minor fire due to an operational incident at the Riyadh Refinery today. No personnel are injured and no impact on operations.”

On Thursday, the Houthi-affiliated outlet Almasirah reported that the Yemeni movement fired a ballistic missile at the Jizan airport in Saudi Arabia.

In recent months, Houthi missile attacks on Saudi Arabia have intensified, as has the antagonism between the two archrivals and leaders of the proxy war in Yemen—Saudi Arabia and Iran.

Last month, Saudi state television reported that Saudi Arabia had intercepted a ballistic missile that the Iran-aligned Houthi rebels claimed to have fired at an Aramco facility.

At the time, Almasirah reported that the rebels in Yemen fired a ballistic missile at Aramco in Asir, days after they had fired a similar missile targeting the Saudi Air Force base in the area.

Aramco’s facilities are operating normally and are safe, an official at the Saudi oil giant told Reuters, after the first reports of the Houthi missile attack in June emerged.

In one of the previous ballistic missile attacks on Aramco from Yemen, a missile was fired in May at an Aramco facility in the Jizan province, the latest in a string of escalating tensions between the Houthis and the Kingdom. A spokesman for the Saudi-led coalition said that Saudi air defense forces had tracked the missile as it landed in the middle of an uninhabited desert.

By Tsvetana Paraskova for Oilprice.com

More Top Reads From Oilprice.com:

• Has The Movement For CO2 Controls Peaked?
• Who Actually Benefits From Sanctions On Iran?
• Oil Prices At Risk Of Economic Downturn