Yemeni Houthi rebels claimed responsibility in a statement on Friday March 25 for a series of 16 attacks in Saudi Arabia, one of which caused a huge fire at an oil facility owned by oil giant Aramco in Jeddah. A Houthi spokesman reported attacks using drones and missiles.
These strikes were carried out on the eve of the seventh anniversary of the intervention of a military coalition led by Riyadh in Yemen to fight the Houthi rebels, close to Iran.
These attacks delayed free practice 2 of the Saudi Arabian Formula 1 Grand Prix in Jeddah. The session started fifteen minutes late, at 8:15 p.m. local time (6:15 p.m. in Paris), after the drivers and team bosses were received by the CEO of F1, Stefano Domenicali, to inform them of the situation.
the fire “was brought under control and caused no casualties”announced the military coalition which intervenes in Yemen against the rebels, in a press release at the beginning of the evening, specifying that it would not have “no impact on activities in the city of Jeddah”.
The Saudi kingdom, the world’s largest exporter of crude oil, warned on Monday of the risk of a drop in its oil production in the aftermath of several drone and missile attacks claimed by the Houthis. One had targeted an Aramco refinery in the industrial city of Yanbu on the Red Sea, about 100 kilometers north of Jeddah.
The attacks come as oil prices have risen sharply since Russia invaded Ukraine on February 24 and global supplies have been disrupted as Russia is hit by Western sanctions.