i24NEWS – AFP
March 07, 2021, 11:17 PMlatest revision March 07, 2021, 11:27 PM
AFPAn explosion seen during clashes between forces loyal to Yemen’s Saudi-backed government and Houthi rebel fighters in Yemen’s northeastern province of Marib on March 5, 2021.
Attack targeted ‘the backbone of the world economy, oil supplies and global energy security,’ Saudis say
Yemen’s Houthi rebels fired missiles at Saudi targets Sunday, according to official statements, with energy giant Saudi Aramco coming under fire.
The Houthi spokesperson tweeted that 14 drones and eight ballistic missiles targeted Saudi Aramco in Ras Tanura and at military targets in the cities of Dammam, Asir and Jazan.
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The Saudi energy ministry said in a statement released to the official Saudi Press Agency that “shrapnel from a ballistic missile fell near Saudi Aramco’s residential area in the city of Dhahran, where thousands of the company’s employees and their families from different nationalities live.”
The Saudis did not name the Houthis as responsible for the attack, although it follows a recent escalation between the Saudi-led coalition forces and the Iran-backed Houthis, most notably over the oil-rich Marib region.
Earlier Sunday, Saudi Arabia’s air force attacked targets in Sana’a, the Yemen capital under Houthi occupation, following a series of drones Riyadh said it downed earlier in the morning.
“One of the petroleum tank areas at the Ras Tanura Port in the Eastern Region, one of the largest oil ports in the world, was attacked this morning by a drone,” the statement said.
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“The drone that attacked from the sea was destroyed and brought down before reaching its target,” the Saudi defense ministry later said, “and the ballistic missile that targeted Aramco facilities in Dhahran was also destroyed.”
The defense ministry noted that the hostilities were against “the backbone of the world economy, oil supplies and global energy security.”
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