Blasts rock Riyadh; Aramco building hit
RIYADH, October 15 ------ Powerful explosions rattled Saudi Arabia’s capital hours after a Houthi strike hit a building in the area housing energy giant Aramco’s operations center, in a fresh escalation of the war between the kingdom and the Yemeni group.
Regional powerhouse Saudi Arabia unleashed salvos against the Houthi stronghold in the Yemeni capital Sanaa, while the Iran-backed group fired back at sites across the kingdom, which is the world’s top crude oil exporter. Most strikes on Saudi Arabia have targeted infrastructure on the outskirts of Riyadh, but the barrages appear to be getting closer to the city center.
On Wednesday, the Saudi-led coalition fighting the Houthis said it had intercepted a missile fired by the group toward the capital. In the city’s downtown, residents have been seen parking their cars to stop and look up at the sky, an Agence France-Presse (AFP) journalist said. On Tuesday night, the white plumes of air defense missiles could be seen streaking across the sky, followed by explosions.
While walking down a major avenue, a witness told AFP he “saw a projectile cutting across the sky” above a mall, saying it left “a yellowish trail of light followed by a trail of smoke. Then, we heard an explosion.” “People were calm; no one was speaking. We were scared and all looking up at the sky,” he added, requesting anonymity.
More blasts were heard on Wednesday, AFP journalists in Riyadh reported, as messages were received on phones warning of an “aerial threat” and urging people to take shelter. The alert was lifted a few minutes later. A Saudi energy ministry official said a building belonging to Aramco in the city of Dhahran was struck on Tuesday, resulting in a “limited fire” but “no casualties or fatalities.” Dhahran is home to Aramco’s headquarters, a vast complex comprising several buildings and residential compounds.
Strikes on Yemen
In Riyadh, the civil defense agency said four people — two women, a man and a child — were wounded by debris from two intercepted Houthi cruise missiles and that 15 homes were damaged. The Saudi-led coalition, meanwhile, struck oil sites across western Yemen, with spokesman Turki Al-Malki saying the attacks targeted facilities used to supply the Houthis’ effort to “threaten the kingdom, Yemen, the southern Red Sea and waterways.”
An AFP correspondent in Sanaa reported an explosion, while a breaking news alert on the Houthi-affiliated Al-Masirah TV channel said “Saudi aggression” targeted an oil firm. The coalition has supported Yemen’s government militarily against the Houthis since 2015 in a long-running civil war that has created a humanitarian crisis. Many civilians in the Houthi-controlled Yemeni capital, fearing shortages, have rushed to queue in front of fuel stations, an AFP journalist said.
Source: manilatimes.net
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