RIYADH (The Thursday Times) — An administrative building belonging to Saudi Aramco in Riyadh was damaged by falling shrapnel on Sunday in what Saudi Arabia called an attempted attack, on a morning when the kingdom’s air defences shot down four missiles that it said Yemen’s Houthis had fired at the capital and the south.
An official source at the Ministry of Energy said the building “was subjected to an attempted attack” and that the shrapnel caused minor damage, with no injuries or deaths. The relevant authorities responded promptly and took the necessary measures, the source said.
How the morning unfolded: at 9.05am local time, Major General Turki al-Maliki, spokesman for the Saudi-led coalition in Yemen, said air defences had intercepted and destroyed two ballistic missiles launched by the “terrorist Houthi militia” towards Riyadh. Twenty minutes later he said two cruise missiles fired towards Riyadh and southern regions had also been intercepted and destroyed. The energy ministry’s statement on the Aramco building came at 11.45am.
Witnesses said the building that was hit was the Aramco tower in the King Abdullah Financial District, the cluster of glass towers in the north of the capital, and that it had been damaged. The ministry did not say where the building was or what struck it. Saudi Civil Defence issued an early warning alert in Riyadh during the attacks and later said the danger had passed.
A widening campaign: the Houthis have repeatedly targeted Saudi Arabia in recent weeks. The coalition has intercepted missiles aimed at the south after its strikes on Yemen’s Ras Isa port, when the Houthis threatened Aramco directly, and air defences brought down a drone launched towards the Makkah region. Aramco said this month that its profit had risen despite attacks and lower output.
Pakistan, which signed a mutual defence agreement with Saudi Arabia last year, has condemned the Houthi attacks on the kingdom at the United Nations.
