A drone attack launched by Yemen’s Houthi group on an oil field in eastern Saudi Arabia on Saturday caused a “limited” fire at a gas plant but had no impact on oil production, state-run oil company Saudi Aramco said. A Houthi military spokesman said earlier on Saturday that the group had targeted the Shaybah oil field with 10 drones, in what he said was the “biggest attack in the depths” of the kingdom, the world’s top oil exporter, by the Iran-aligned group. But a Saudi industry source told Reuters the attack most probably involved only three drones and caused no casualties.
“Saudi Aramco’s response team controlled a limited fire this morning at the Shaybah NGL (natural gas liquids) facility,” the company said in a statement. “There were no injuries and no interruptions to Saudi Aramco’s oil operations.” Shayba is more than 1,000 km (620 miles) away from Houthi-controlled territory in northwestern Yemen. The field is located near the border with the United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia’s main partner in the Sunni Arab coalition which has been battling the Houthis since 2015 to restore Yemen’s ousted pro-Saudi government. That government was driven from the capital Sanaa by the Houthis in late 2014. The war has been in military stalemate for years. The Houthis have stepped up cross-border missile and drone attacks on Saudi Arabia in recent months.
POWERS OF AGGRESSION
“We promise the Saudi regime and the powers of aggression bigger and wider operations if the aggression continues,” the Houthi military spokesman said, according to tweets by the group’s Al-Masirah TV. In May, the Houthis claimed responsibility for a drone attack on two oil pumping stations in the kingdom that caused a small fire but did not disrupt oil output or exports of crude and petroleum products. The coalition has responded to the drone attacks with airstrikes on Houthi targets in Sanaa and other areas held by the group, which controls most large urban centers in Yemen.
The violence is complicating U.N.-led peace efforts to ease tensions between the Houthis and Saudi Arabia to pave the way for political talks to end the war, which has killed tens of thousands of people and pushed millions to the brink of famine. The conflict is widely seen in the region as a proxy war between Sunni Muslim Saudi Arabia and Shi’ite Muslim Iran. Riyadh has accused Tehran of supplying the Houthis with the missiles and drones used in attacks on Saudi cities, a charge both Iran and the group reject. The Houthis say they manufacture their weapons and are fighting a corrupt system.
