RIYADH, Saudi Arabia – Yemen’s Houthi rebels, who are in line in Iran, said on Sunday they attacked a major Saudi Arabian oil port on the Persian Gulf with drones and missiles. Saudi authorities said the strike did not cause any casualties or damage.
The Saudi Arabian Ministry of Energy said an attack “from the sea” was aimed at petroleum tanks in the Ras Tanura port. It condemns the so-called ‘repeated acts of sabotage and hostility’ that are supplying energy to the world.
“All indications are that Iran,” said a Saudi royal court adviser, was informed of the case. He said it was not clear whether Iran or Iraq originated, but that it did not come from the direction of Yemen.
Iranian officials did not immediately respond to a request for comment. An Iraqi official said he was unaware of any connection between his country and the attack.
In 2019, a drone and missile attack in the heart of Saudi Arabia’s oil industry temporarily shut down half of the kingdom’s crude production. At the time, the Houthis accepted responsibility, but the US said the attack was launched from Iraq or Iran, denying the allegations.
Yahya Saree, spokesman for Houthi forces fighting the Saudi-led military coalition in Yemen, said the group used 10 drones and a ballistic missile on Sunday in an attack on the eastern province of Saudi Arabia, as well as four drones and six missiles aimed in the southern direction. Saudi regions Asir and Jazan.
The Houthis intensified airstrikes on Saudi Arabia following the inauguration in January of President Biden, who promised to end the six-year-old civil war in Yemen and recalibrate Washington’s relationship with Riyadh.
The Biden government has said it wants to re-enter the 2015 nuclear deal and then negotiate a deeper, broader agreement with Tehran that also addresses Iran’s military stance and activities in the Middle East.
Saudi Arabia is leading a military coalition that intervened in the conflict in Yemen, which is now facing one of the world’s worst humanitarian crises. Earlier on Sunday, the coalition launched a new round of airstrikes on the capital Sanaa, warning that a red line was being fired at civilians in Saudi Arabia.
Hussein Nasser, a father of two living in Sanaa, said the coalition bombing of a nearby military base shattered the windows of dozens of homes in his area and injured several people. “Five airstrikes at the same time while people and their children are eating lunch,” he said.
After the incident in Ras Tanura, the port was operating normally according to normal shipping sources. “The cargo continues normally,” said a driver at a shipping agency there who did not want to be named. He was not aware of any distribution center affected.
Ras Tanura is home to Saudi Aramco’s oldest and largest oil refinery and the world’s largest offshore oil plant abroad. The 550,000 barrel-a-day refinery supplies more than a quarter of the kingdom’s fuel supply.
Shrapnel from a ballistic missile, which according to the Houthis said they were firing at military targets in nearby Dammam, fell near Aramco’s residential area in neighboring Dhahran, the Saudi statement said.
An Aramco employee living in the area said he saw two projectiles intercepted overhead by Saudi air defenses, which are heavily dependent on U.S. Patriot anti-missile systems. Residents in the area reported that the windows of their homes shook or even shattered.
Images shared on social media showed bright rays of light in the sky above the oil-rich Eastern Province in Saudi Arabia and later a white smoke.
—Benoit Faucon and Saleh al-Batati contributed to this article.
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