Fire breaks out at Saudi Aramco complex after reported missile attack

RIYADH: A reported attack on a Saudi Aramco administrative building in Dhahran triggered a limited fire, Saudi Arabia’s Energy Ministry said, as hostilities involving the kingdom and Yemen’s Iran-aligned Houthi movement continued to escalate.

The incident occurred late on Tuesday, prompting authorities to respond and take the necessary measures, according to the ministry. No casualties were reported.

Earlier, a source at the state-owned oil company told Reuters that a ballistic missile had struck the Aramco headquarters complex in the eastern Saudi city. The source said an office tower was hit, with damage reported to its top three floors. Two other people familiar with the incident also said the building caught fire.

The Dhahran complex houses a key operations centre responsible for overseeing Aramco’s extensive energy infrastructure, including onshore and offshore oil fields, pipelines, refineries and export terminals.

The reported strike comes amid a series of attacks claimed to be part of the escalating conflict involving the Houthis, who have launched ballistic missiles and drones at strategic Saudi sites over the past week. The attacks are reportedly in retaliation for Riyadh’s support for government forces in Yemen’s renewed civil war.

Saudi Arabia has also faced repeated attacks targeting its aviation infrastructure. Riyadh’s international airport has been struck four times, including an attack on Saturday that killed 13 people, according to the report. The strike was described as the deadliest in the kingdom in a decade, while further attacks led to flight disruptions across the country.

Separately, six sources told Reuters they had heard loud explosions near the Aramco complex earlier.

The Saudi-led coalition said fragments of a missile that it had intercepted and destroyed in Dhahran had fallen on a residential area, without providing further details.

Authorities also reported that drones and missiles were intercepted and destroyed in the capital, Riyadh, and the country’s southern region.

Four people were injured in Riyadh after fragments from two Houthi missiles fell following their interception and destruction, Saudi Civil Defense said on Wednesday. The debris caused limited damage to 15 homes in the capital, the Civil Defense spokesperson said, adding that the injured were two women, a man and a child.

The Houthis had threatened a “harsh and painful” response to Saudi-led strikes on the Yemeni capital Sanaa, with spokesperson Yahya Saree saying targets could include the Saudi Aramco headquarters in Dhahran and an oil refinery in Riyadh.

The group has warned oil workers in Saudi Arabia to stay away from sites that could be targets.

The Houthis earlier on Tuesday said Saudi Arabia was attacking Sanaa, and the Saudi-led coalition warned civilians to stay away from an oil depot on the city’s outskirts.

Houthi-run Al-Masirah television reported that the Saudi-led coalition had targeted the Yemen Petroleum Company’s Sabah central station, a fuel depot on the outskirts of Sanaa.

The coalition said in a statement on Tuesday evening that it attacked the station and other sites in an operation aimed at “neutralizing the capabilities of Houthis” to threaten Saudi Arabia, Yemen and international waterways.

The Saudi cabinet, chaired by de facto ruler Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, issued a statement on Tuesday before the strike on Saudi Aramco saying the Houthis would face consequences for their repeated attacks on the kingdom.

Reignited Yemen war

Saudi Arabia resumed its military campaign in Yemen in support of the internationally recognised government in a bid to reverse the Houthis’ sudden gains last month, when they swept down the Red Sea coast to the critical Bab el-Mandeb Strait.

The strait, the southern gateway to the Red Sea, has become a more vital route for Saudi and other global energy supplies since the start of the Iran war in February, when Tehran closed the Strait of Hormuz leading from the Gulf to the Indian Ocean.

While a government offensive that began a week ago pushed the Houthis from the area closest to the strait, the group remains embedded nearby and has made gains around the city of Taiz this month.

Saudi Arabia has been seeking wider support from allies for its campaign against the Houthis and to help it ward off their missile and drone attacks.

Washington, Saudi Arabia’s strongest ally and longtime security guarantor, has so far rebuffed Saudi efforts to bring it directly into the war against the Houthis.

The Yemen conflict has resumed as a spillover from the wider US-Iran war that began with the US-Israeli attack on the Islamic Republic on February 28.

Iran, Saudi Arabia’s longtime regional rival, has offered to mediate between Saudi Arabia and the Houthis, its foreign minister Abbas Araqchi said on Sunday in statements reiterated by the ministry on Monday.