AFP, Dubai :
Yemen’s Iran-aligned Huthi rebels on Saturday claimed drone attacks on two Saudi oil facilities, according to the group’s Al-Masirah television.
The rebels launched “a large-scale operation involving 10 drones that targeted refineries in Abqaiq and Khurais in eastern Saudi Arabia”, Al-Masirah said.
“At 4.00 am (0100 GMT) the industrial security teams of Aramco started dealing with fires at two of its facilities in Abqaiq and Khurais as a result of… drones,” the ministry said in a statement carried by the official Saudi Press Agency.
“The two fires have been controlled.”
The statement added that an investigation had been launched after the attack in the kingdom’s Eastern Province but did not specify the source of the drones.
Last month, an attack claimed by Yemen’s Huthi rebels sparked a fire at Aramco’s Shaybah natural gas liquefaction facility but no casualties were reported by the company.
In recent months, the Huthi rebels have carried out a spate of cross-border missile and drone attacks targeting Saudi air bases and other facilities in what it says is retaliation for a Saudi-led air war on rebel-held areas of Yemen.
There was no immediate claim of responsibility from the rebels for Saturday’s attacks.
Tensions in the Gulf have soared since May, with US President Donald Trump calling off air strikes against Iran at the last minute in June after it downed a US drone.
The United States and Saudi Arabia have also blamed Iran for multiple attacks on tankers in the Gulf.
In 2014, a Saudi court sentenced a man to death for links to the 2006 attack. Two other Saudis were jailed for 33 and 27 years respectively, state media reported.
Khurais, 250 kilometres from Dhahran, hosts a major Aramco oil field.
Tensions in the Gulf have soared since May, with US President Donald Trump calling off air strikes against Iran at the last minute in June after it downed a US drone.
