Saudi Aramco administrative building attacked, limited fire reported

By Timour Azhari and Menna AlaaElDin

RIYADH, Oct 13 (Reuters) - An administrative building belonging to Saudi Arabia's state-owned oil company Saudi Aramco in the eastern city of Dhahran was attacked, causing a limited fire, the Energy Ministry said in a statement on Wednesday as fighting between Yemen'sIran-allied Houthis and the kingdom intensified.

Authorities responded to the incident late on Tuesday and took necessary measures, the ministry said, adding that there were no injuries or deaths.

A company source told Reuters earlier that a ballistic missile hit the Aramco headquarters complex in Dhahran. The source said an office tower in the complex was struck and that 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 centre for Aramco, which oversees a vast network of onshore and offshore oil rigs, pipelines, refineries and export terminals.

The Houthis have for a week been firing 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 received four strikes, including one on Saturday that killed 13 people.

Saturday's ballistic missile strike on Riyadh airport was the deadliest in Saudi Arabia in a decade, with further attacks grounding flights across the country.

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

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

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

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

TheHouthis earlier on Tuesday said Saudi Arabia was attacking Sanaa, and 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 Saudi-led 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 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, issued a statement on Tuesday before the strike on Saudi Aramco saying 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 recognised government in a bid to reverse the Houthis' sudden gains last month, when they swept down the Red Sea coast to the critical Bab el-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.

While a government offensive that began a week ago pushed the Houthis from the area closest to the strait, 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 to help it ward 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 that 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, its foreign minister Abbas Araqchi said on Sunday in statements reiterated by the ministry on Monday.

(Reporting by Timour Azhari, Menna Alaa El Din, Yasmine Ghania, Tala Ramadan, Yomna Ehab and Enas Alashray; Editing by Andrew Heavens, Andrew Cawthorne, Cynthia Osterman, Sanjeev Miglani and Edmund Klamann)