Yemen rebels’ drones strike Saudi oil field
DUBAI, United Arab Emirates — Drones launched by Yemen’s Houthi rebels attacked a massive oil and gas field deep inside Saudi Arabia’s sprawling desert on Saturday, causing what the kingdom described as a “limited fire” — the second such recent attack on its crucial energy industry.
The attack on the Shaybah oil field, which produces some 1 million barrels of crude oil a day near the kingdom’s border with the United Arab Emirates, again shows the reach of the Houthis’ drone program. Shaybah sits some 750 miles from Houthi-controlled territory, underscoring the rebels’ ability to now strike at both nations, which are mired in Yemen’s yearslong war.
The drone assault also comes amid heightened tensions in the wider Mideast between the U.S. and Iran, whose supreme leader hosted a top Houthi official days earlier in Tehran.
State media in Saudi Arabia quoted Energy Minister Khalid al-falih as saying production was not affected at the oil field and no one was wounded in the most recent attack. The state-run Saudi Arabian Oil Co., known widely as Saudi Aramco, issued a terse statement acknowledging a “limited fire” at a liquid natural gas facility at Shaybah.
A satellite image obtained by The Associated Press showed black smoke rising just west of the natural gas facility that wasn’t seen in images from prior days. The facility is just north of the airstrip Saudi Aramco built to fly staffers into the remote region.
The Saudi acknowledgement of the attack came hours after Yahia Sarie, a military spokesman for the Houthis, issued a video statement claiming the rebels launched 10 bomb-laden drones targeting the field in their “biggest-ever” operation. He threatened that more attacks would be coming.
U.N. investigators say the Houthis’ new UAV-X drone, found in recent months during the Saudi-led coalition’s war in Yemen, likely has a range of up to 930 miles. That puts Saudi oil fields, an under-construction Emirati nuclear power plant and Dubai’s busy international airport within their range.