RIYADH — The headquarters of Saudi Arabia's state-owned oil giant Saudi Aramco, one of the world's largest oil companies, in the eastern city of Dhahran came under attack on Tuesday night, igniting what the kingdom's energy ministry described in a statement as a limited fire, as fighting between Yemen's Iran-allied Houthis and the kingdom intensified.

The ministry said authorities responded late on Tuesday to the incident, which involved an administrative building at the headquarters complex, and took the necessary measures. It added that there were no injuries or deaths.

A company source told Reuters earlier that a ballistic missile had hit the Aramco headquarters complex in Dhahran. According to the source, an office tower in the complex was struck and its top three floors were damaged. The source and two other people with knowledge of the matter said the building was on fire.

The complex hosts a major operations center for Aramco, which oversees a vast network of onshore and offshore oil rigs, pipelines, refineries and export terminals. The company sits at the heart of the kingdom's oil industry: Dhahran lies in the Eastern Province, where much of Saudi Arabia's crude is produced, and the strike comes seven years after drone and missile attacks on Aramco's Abqaiq processing facility temporarily cut the kingdom's crude output by more than half, in an attack the Houthis claimed but Washington and Riyadh blamed on Iran.

A Week of Escalating Strikes

The attack followed a week in which the Houthis have fired ballistic missiles and drones at key Saudi sites in retaliation for the kingdom's backing of government forces in Yemen's reignited civil war. Riyadh's international airport has been hit four times, including a strike on Saturday that killed 13 people.

That ballistic missile attack on Riyadh airport was the deadliest in Saudi Arabia in a decade, and subsequent attacks grounded flights across the country.

Earlier on Tuesday, six sources told Reuters they had heard loud booms near the Aramco complex.

The Saudi-led coalition said fragments of a missile 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 in the country's southern region.

Saudi Civil Defense said on Wednesday that four people were injured in Riyadh after fragments from two Houthi missiles fell following their interception and destruction. 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.

Warnings and Retaliation

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 also warned oil workers in Saudi Arabia to stay away from sites that could be targeted.

Earlier on Tuesday, the Houthis said Saudi Arabia was attacking Sanaa, while 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 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 had 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, said in a statement on Tuesday — before the strike on Saudi Aramco — that 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 recognized government in a bid to reverse the Houthis' sudden gains last month, when they swept down the Red Sea coast to the critical Bab-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. Saudi Arabia also has the option of moving crude across the country through its East-West pipeline to the Red Sea port of Yanbu, a bypass route with a capacity of roughly five million barrels per day that has gained renewed relevance since the closure.

A government offensive that began a week ago pushed the Houthis from the area closest to the strait, but 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 for help in warding 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, which 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, Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi said on Sunday, in statements reiterated by the ministry on Monday. How the situation develops could hinge on whether Washington's stance shifts, whether Tehran's mediation offer finds traction in Riyadh, and what further authorities provide on the damage at Dhahran, which the ministry has so far characterized only as a limited fire.

— Reuters

Source: Reuters via BusinessWorld