Riyadh (Reuters) – Yemen’s Houthis promised on this Wednesday (14) to continue with attacks on airports and oil facilities in Saudi Arabia and stated that they had attacked the headquarters of the oil giant Saudi Aramco, struck the day before.
The group, aligned with Iran, said it had launched ballistic missiles, cruise missiles and drones against Saudi Aramco facilities in the city of Dhahran in the eastern part of the country, against King Khalid International Airport in Riyadh, and against an Aramco refinery in Riyadh, without specifying when.
Saudi Arabia has faced an intensification of Houthi attacks over the past week, including an attack on Riyadh’s airport on Saturday that killed 13 people.
The Houthis say they are retaliating for the kingdom’s support to Yemeni government forces in the Yemen war, which resumed last month, rekindled by the confrontation between the U.S. and Iran in the Gulf.
In a broad warning, the Houthis urged “international shipping companies,” civilians and workers to stay away from airports and oil facilities, which they declared as legitimate military targets.
Saudi Arabia on Alert
The Saudi-led coalition said it had intercepted a ballistic missile fired by the Houthis toward Riyadh on Wednesday, and several loud blasts were heard in the Saudi capital.
Saudi authorities had previously issued a warning about a possible air threat in Riyadh on Wednesday, before the alert was suspended, a witness said. It was not immediately clear what caused the explosions, and there was no immediate comment from authorities on their origin.
The escalation of the conflict dealt a hard blow to the ambitious plans of Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman to transform and diversify the Saudi economy and reduce its dependence on oil.
Read more: War collides with Saudi Arabia’s ambitions at a power meeting of oil nations
The Saudi Energy Ministry said that Tuesday’s attack on the Saudi Aramco headquarters caused a small-scale fire and did not result in injuries or deaths.
The Dhahran complex houses an important Aramco operations hub, overseeing a vast network of onshore and offshore oil platforms, pipelines, refineries and export terminals.
A company source told Reuters earlier that a ballistic missile hit the Aramco headquarters complex. The source said an office tower in the complex was struck and that its top three floors were damaged.
Riyadh’s international airport has already been the target of four attacks, including Saturday’s strike, the deadliest in Saudi Arabia in the last decade. Authorities closed the airport until October 17, and airlines canceled flights to Saudi Arabia.
Fearing the rising Iranian influence and the prospect of chaos at its borders, Saudi Arabia intervened in the Yemen civil war in 2015 in support of the government after the Houthis seized the capital, Sanaa.
The UN brokered a truce agreement in 2022 between the warring parties in Yemen, which maintained a fragile peace until this year.
