Riyadh, Saudi Arabia — A drone strike on an oil refinery in Riyadh, the capital of Saudi Arabia, caused a small fire that did not injure or affect supplies, the Kingdom’s Ministry of Energy said earlier Friday. rice field.
The statement did not specify where the drone attack was launched. Later Friday, the Yemeni rebel Houthi, who has fought a Saudi-led coalition in its own country since 2015, blamed the drone attack.
In a video statement, Brig, a military spokesman for rebels. General Yehia Sarie said the Houthis had targeted the Aramco facility in Riyadh with multiple drone attacks. He also claimed that the Houthis attacked the facilities of a Saudi Arabian company in the areas of Jazan and Abha. He said the attack was in response to a stronger blockade of the coalition against fuel intrusions into Yemen’s Houthi territory.
The kingdom’s oil facilities have been targeted by the Houthis in the past. Iran-backed rebels also blamed a shocking attack on the Buqayq oil treatment plant in eastern provinces in 2019. This temporarily knocked out half of the kingdom’s daily production.
A statement from the ministry, released by the state-owned Saudi Press Agency, said the attack took place around 4:40 am on Thursday and was released after midnight. He said such attacks target not only Saudi Arabia, but also the security and stability of the energy supply to the world.
Saudi Arabia has been involved in the Yemeni civil war since 2015, fighting the Houthi, which has conquered the capital of Sana’a and expelled the government from power. Despite seven years of fighting, the Houthis continues to dominate much of Sana’a and northern Yemen.
The Yemeni conflict has killed more than 150,000 people, both fighters and civilians, and has created what the United Nations calls the worst humanitarian crisis in the world. Many are internally displaced.
The United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization has warned that about 13 million Yemenis are heading for hunger due to a prolonged civil war and lack of funding for humanitarian aid.
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