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An administrative building belonging to Saudi Aramco in the eastern city of Dhahran was hit late Tuesday, causing a limited fire but no injuries or deaths, Saudi Arabia's Energy Ministry said Wednesday.
"An administrative building belonging to Saudi Aramco in the city of Dhahran, Eastern Province, was targeted, resulting in a limited fire," a ministry official said, adding that authorities responded and took the necessary measures.
A company source told Reuters a ballistic missile struck an office tower in Aramco's headquarters complex, damaging its top three floors.
The strike on the nerve center of the world's largest oil exporter came hours after Yemen's Houthis named Aramco's headquarters as a potential target, marking a sharp escalation in their war with Saudi Arabia.
The Houthis had threatened to strike Aramco's headquarters, King Khalid International Airport and an Aramco refinery in Riyadh if Saudi forces bombed Sanaa.
Houthi military spokesman Yahya Saree warned that any attack on Sanaa would be met with a "firm and painful" response.
The complex hosts a major operations center overseeing Aramco's network of rigs, pipelines, refineries and export terminals. The Saudi-led coalition said fragments of a missile it intercepted in Dhahran fell on a residential area.
Earlier Tuesday, the coalition struck the Yemen Petroleum Company's Sabah fuel station on the outskirts of Sanaa after urging civilians to evacuate, in an operation it said aimed at "neutralizing the capabilities of Houthis" to threaten Saudi Arabia and international waterways.
"The Kingdom will not allow any threat to its security or to freedom of maritime navigation in the Red Sea and Bab al-Mandeb Strait," the Saudi Cabinet said.
Debris from two intercepted Houthi missiles injured four people in Riyadh, two women, a man and a child, and damaged 15 homes, Saudi Civil Defense said.
More than 3,120 flights from Saudi airports, about 41% of scheduled departures, have been canceled since Oct. 8, according to aviation analytics firm Cirium, The Associated Press (AP) reported.
"It may be a warning, or it may be a sign of things to come," said Adam Baron of the New America institute, as the attack on Aramco’s Dhahran headquarters deepened the crisis.
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