DUBAI — Saudi Arabia intercepted a ballistic
missile and armed drones fired at its oil-rich eastern region by Yemen's Houthi
group on Saturday, and two children were injured by the resulting shrapnel, the
ministry of defense said.
اضافة اعلان
The Houthi movement, which has been at war against a
Saudi-led coalition in Yemen since 2015, claimed responsibility for the attack,
saying it had targeted Saudi oil giant Aramco's facilities at Ras Tanura in the
city of Dammam with eight armed drones and a missile.
The
Houthis also launched attacks on other Aramco facilities
in the southern Saudi provinces of Jizan and Najran provinces, said Yahya
Sarea, spokesman for the group's armed forces.
Saudi Aramco did not immediately respond to a request for
comment. A source familiar with the matter said there was no impact on the
company's infrastructure and that the attack happened outside its facilities.
A missile was intercepted over a suburb of Dammam, with
scattered shrapnel injuring the two children and causing minor damage to 14
houses, the Saudi ministry said. Other missiles and drones were intercepted
over Jizan and Najran, it added.
The eastern region, home to significant oil infrastructure,
has been targeted by previous aerial attacks, including one on two Aramco
plants in September 2019 that temporarily knocked out half the country's oil
production.
The Saudi-led military coalition intervened in Yemen after
the Iran-aligned Houthis ousted the government of president Abd-Rabbu Mansour
Hadi from power in 2014.
The war, which has killed tens of thousands of people,
mostly civilians, and triggered the world's worst humanitarian crisis, has been
locked in a military stalemate for years.
Peace talks backed by the UN and the US have been focused on
lifting a blockade on Houthi-held ports and Sanaa airport in return for a
commitment from the Iran-aligned group for truce talks.
But they have stalled in recent months, with the warring
sides failing to reach a compromise.
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