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The Saudi Energy Ministry said an administrative building belonging to Aramco in the eastern city of Dhahran was struck by a Houthi missile on Tuesday night causing a limited fire that response teams brought under control with no casualties or fatalities reported. An official at the ministry informed the Saudi Press Agency that authorities acted promptly at the site in the Eastern Province. The complex hosts a major operations centre overseeing the oil company’s network of rigs pipelines refineries and export terminals according to a Reuters assessment of the facility’s role.
Saudi civil defence authorities stated that four people including two women a man and a child were wounded by debris from two intercepted Houthi cruise missiles over the capital. The agency added that 15 homes sustained damage in Riyadh as a result of the falling fragments from the interceptions. Civil defence procedures were implemented across affected areas in the capital and southern Saudi Arabia the spokesperson detailed in the official update.
Houthi military spokesman Yahya Saree claimed responsibility for the Dhahran strike describing it as retaliation for Saudi-led coalition airstrikes on Sanaa and other Yemeni provinces earlier that day. Saree had warned of a harsh and painful response if the coalition targeted the Yemeni capital and listed the Aramco headquarters in Dhahran among possible targets in a prior statement covered by Al Jazeera. The group had also issued evacuation warnings for the Dhahran complex a Riyadh refinery and King Khalid International Airport according to multiple regional reports.
Witnesses near the Aramco complex in Dhahran reported hearing loud booms with six sources telling Reuters that explosions occurred in the vicinity and that the affected building caught fire. A company source cited by Reuters said the top three floors of an office tower sustained damage in the incident. The Saudi-led coalition separately confirmed it intercepted a ballistic missile directed at Dhahran with debris landing in a residential zone of the city.
The exchange followed Saudi-led coalition strikes on oil facilities in Sanaa Saada and Hodeidah provinces in Yemen which the coalition described as sites supplying the Houthi war effort. Al Jazeera correspondents in the Yemeni capital reported hearing explosions and seeing warplanes during the operation on Tuesday. Houthi media characterised the coalition raids as aggression involving dozens of strikes on civilian and military sites in the area.
This escalation continues a pattern of intensified Houthi attacks on Saudi energy infrastructure and urban centres in recent weeks amid the broader Yemen conflict. Saudi Arabia had reported intercepting Houthi missiles targeting Taif and Yanbu in the prior week with no damage to Aramco facilities at that time according to coalition statements relayed by Reuters. Officials have not indicated any disruption to overall oil production from the latest incident at the Dhahran complex.
