RIYADH – Three people were killed in two attacks on an Aramco oil field and an airport in Saudi Arabia’s eastern province, the latest deadly strikes on the kingdom as its conflict with the Iran-backed Houthis drags on.
A drone strike on Aramco’s Shaybah oil field killed two people early on Oct 21.
Operations at the field, which has the capacity to produce a million barrels of crude a day, were unaffected, the Saudi energy ministry said, citing one of its officials without identifying them.
One person was killed in an attack on King Fahd International Airport in Dammam later in the day, the General Authority of Civil Aviation said in a post on X. Eight others sustained injuries ranging from minor to severe as damage to the airport was still being assessed.
The Houthi rebels, who have been attacking Saudi Arabia from Yemen over the past few months, did not immediately claim responsibility for the latest assaults.
The Houthis have repeatedly targeted Saudi airports in October, killing at least 17 people in the capital, Riyadh. The campaign caused the kingdom’s flagship conference, the Future Investment Initiative, to be postponed till 2027.
The US State Department issued an ordered departure on Oct 21 for non-emergency government employees and their family members in Saudi Arabia, spokesman Tommy Pigott said on X.
Earlier, the US embassy in Riyadh urged extreme caution when using airports in Saudi Arabia because of Houthi strikes.
The Saudi-led coalition in Yemen said it intercepted multiple drones in the eastern region on Oct 21.
The drone fired at the Shaybah field was targeting a processing facility, according to the energy ministry, causing a vehicle to catch fire outside the target’s perimeter. The two people who died were from Nepal and the Philippines.
A week ago, the Houthis hit Aramco’s headquarters in Dhahran, east of the kingdom.
The Houthis are one of Tehran’s main proxy militant groups, controlling swathes of Yemen, including the capital Sanaa. In July, they announced a blockade of Saudi ports, claiming the kingdom was besieging parts of Yemen.
The militia started firing on Saudi Arabia almost daily in September, attacking energy facilities among other targets. It also advanced south from its stronghold in north-west Yemen toward the Bab el-Mandeb Strait, a crucial chokepoint for energy tankers and container ships transiting between Asia and Europe via the Suez Canal.
The fighting further intensified in early October, when the Saudi coalition announced a large operation to recapture Houthi-held territory and “eliminate” the group. BLOOMBERG