DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) – Yemeni Houthi rebels said they attacked a Saudi oil facility in the port city of Jiddah on Thursday amid drone and missile attacks on the kingdom, although satellite images later analyzed by Associated Press did not show any new apparent damage at the site.
Saudi state media did not acknowledge any incident in Jiddah. But overnight, a military coalition led by the Saudis announced that the Houthis launched two drones loaded with explosives towards Khamis Mushait, a city southwest of King Khalid Air Force Base, and later two ballistic missiles towards the province of Jizan, in the south. There were no immediate reports of victims.
Brig. General Yehia Sarie, a Houthi military spokesman, tweeted that the rebels fired a new Quds-2 cruise missile at the facility. He posted an online satellite image that matched Aramco’s North Jiddah Bulk Plant, where oil products are stored in tanks. Iranian-backed rebels claimed they hit the same installation Last November, an attack that the Saudi-led coalition later acknowledged caused a fire at the plant.
Although these attacks rarely cause damage or casualties, attacks on large oil installations in Saudi Arabia, the world’s largest oil exporter, has shaken the energy markets and the world economy.
The Jiddah plant serves as a temporary storage facility for gasoline, diesel and other petrochemical products before distribution. The facility is southeast of the city’s King Abdulaziz International Airport, an important airfield that welcomes Muslim pilgrims heading to Mecca.
Flights arriving at the airport were diverted or flew in circles on Thursday morning without explanation, according to tracking data from the website FlightRadar24.com.
An Associated Press journalist at the scene saw no smoke coming out of the facility on Thursday morning. On Friday, the AP analyzed satellite photos of the area taken by Planet Labs Inc. Thursday’s images showed char marks on a tank hit in the November attack that were present in the images from previous days, but no other signs interruption or damage to the installation.
Saudi Aramco, the kingdom’s oil giant that now has a publicly traded stake on the stock exchange, did not respond to a request for comment. Its shares traded slightly on Thursday on the Tadawul stock exchange in Riyadh, with the international reference price of crude oil, Brent, rising to more than $ 64 a barrel.
US diplomats in Saudi Arabia issued warnings to Americans citing the alleged attack on Aramco’s facilities, among other drone attacks reported in the south of the kingdom. He said he was unaware of any victims and urged Americans to “review the immediate precautions to be taken in the event of an attack”.
“These attacks occurred with little or no warning, affecting airports, energy infrastructure and other civilian facilities,” said US diplomats in a new alert on Friday. “The violence associated with groups supported by Iran represents a significant threat. US citizens who live and work near military bases and critical civilian infrastructure, including airports, are at high risk of missile and drone attacks. “
Since 2015, the Houthis fighting the Saudi-led military coalition in Yemen have targeted international airports, along with military facilities and critical oil infrastructure, in Saudi Arabia. In recent months, rebels have stepped up their attacks, launching drones and missiles repeatedly against the kingdom’s Patriot missile batteries. Earlier this week, a ballistic missile hit even the capital, Riyadh, where it was intercepted and exploded in the sky, scattering shrapnel over the city.
The conflict in Yemen broke out almost six years ago, after the Houthis invaded the capital and took over much of the north of the country. A military coalition led by Saudi Arabia has launched a bombing campaign to dislodge the Houthis and restore the internationally recognized government.
Now mired in an impasse, the war has killed more than 12,000 civilians, pushed millions to the brink of starvation and spawned the worst humanitarian crisis in the world. Saudi Arabia has faced much international criticism for its air strikes, which killed civilians and hit non-military targets in Yemen.
Both the Saudi coalition and the Houthis have made conflicting claims about the effect of the rebels’ attacks and the kingdom’s ability to intercept these attacks, making discerning their impact much more difficult in the war.
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Associated Press writer Jon Gambrell in Dubai, United Arab Emirates, contributed to this report.