Yemen's Houthi rebels claim missile hits Saudi oil facility
Source: AP
By ISABEL DEBRE
DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) — Yemen’s Houthi rebels said they attacked a Saudi oil facility in the port city of Jiddah on Thursday, the latest in a series of cross-border missile and drone strikes the group has claimed against the kingdom amid the grinding war in Yemen.
Saudi Arabia’s state-owned media did not immediately acknowledge any incident in Jiddah. But overnight, the military coalition the Saudis are leading against the rebels announced that the Houthis had fired two explosives-laden drones toward Khamis Mushait, a southwestern city home to the King Khalid Air Base, and later a ballistic missile toward the southern province of Jizan. There were no immediate reports of casualties.
Brig. Gen. Yehia Sarie, a Houthi military spokesman, tweeted that the rebels fired a new Quds-2 cruise missile at the facility. He posted a satellite image online that matched Aramco’s North Jiddah Bulk Plant, where oil products are stored in tanks. The Iran-backed rebels claimed they hit the same facility last November, an attack the Saudi-led coalition later acknowledged had ignited a fire at the plant.
While such attacks rarely cause damage or casualties, strikes on major oil facilities in Saudi Arabia, the world’s largest oil exporter, have shaken energy markets and the world economy.
FILE - This Sept. 15, 2019, file photo, shows storage tanks at the North Jiddah bulk plant, an Aramco oil facility, in Jiddah, Saudi Arabia. Yemen's Houthi rebels said they struck a Saudi oil facility in the port city of Jiddah on Thursday, March 4, 2021, the latest in a series of cross-border attacks the group has claimed against the kingdom amid the grinding war in Yemen. A Houthi military spokesman, tweeted that the rebels fired a new Quds-2 cruise missile at the facility. He posted a satellite image online that matched Aramco’s North Jiddah Bulk Plant, where oil products are stored in tanks. (AP Photo/Amr Nabil, File)
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