As the six-year conflict continues, the Saudi kingdom has faced several cross-border missile attacks by Yemen’s Houthi rebels.
Qatar strongly condemned the latest Houthi attempt to attack Saudi Arabia’s Ras Tanura Port and Aramco facilities in Dhahran, authorities said on Sunday.
In a statement by Qatar’s foreign ministry, the Gulf state described the attack as “an act of sabotage that violates all international norms and laws and that would affect the security and stability of energy supplies in the world”.
It came after reports confirmed the rebel group carried out an attack on one of the facilities at Aramco – one of the world’s leading oil companies – using 14 drones and missiles. The rebels also targeted military sites in Asir and Jizan using drones and missiles.
Responding to the attack, Saudi Arabia described the incident as a “cowardly terrorist attack on global energy supplies and security”.
The Saudi kingdoms reported no casualties.
However, state news agency SPA confirmed, fragments from the ballistic missile fell near the residential neighbourhood of Saudi Aramco in Dhahran, where thousands of company employees and their families reside.
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Houthi rebels have previously targeted the leading oil company’s facilities, with the first major attack striking the kingdom in September 2019.
The 2019 incident hit Aramco’s plants and affected the production of five million barrels per day of oil, about half of the crude oil production in Saudi Arabia.
The rebel group, which controls the Yemeni capital Sanaa and as well as other major cities in the north of the country, regularly claims responsibility for the attacks.
This comes as escalations between the Saudi-led coalition and the Houthi rebels continue to increase more than six-years into the conflict.
In 2014, the Houthis overran all government institutions in the capital and captured control of the city, forcing the internationally-recognised government to flee.
Several months later, the Saudi-led coalition launched a military intervention to regain control and reinstate of the Yemeni government.
However, innocent civilians have paid the price of the ongoing war, with at least 233,000 Yemenis killed in the past six years, among them 131,000 who died as a result of malnutrition and a lack of healthcare and medicine.
It is estimated that more than 16 million people will go hungry this year due to the dire conditions that have been imposed on the country due to the war.
It is also estimated that 400,000 Yemeni children below the age of five could die from acute malnutrition.
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