The Aramco Tower, a skyscraper in the central financial district of the Saudi capital, Riyadh, has been hit by an air attack. A statement carried by the Houthi-controlled Saba news agency confirmed that the group had targeted the city’s business zone on Saturday, but it did not name the tower.
The Saudi energy ministry said the building suffered “minor damage” and that no one was killed or injured. Authenticated footage, however, shows more serious harm, with at least one floor appearing to have been badly struck by a missile or drone. Windows on more than one level also appear to have been shattered.
Houthis claim strikes on Riyadh airport and oil sites
The Houthis said Riyadh‘s airport and Aramco oil storage facilities were also targeted in separate strikes. Saudi Arabia said its air defences had intercepted and destroyed several missiles. The attacks are the latest claimed by the Yemen-based group against targets far inside Saudi territory, a area the kingdom has struggled to contain in recent months.
Also read: Saudi forces intercept Houthi missiles aimed at Riyadh
Yemen air strike cited by Houthis a day earlier
The assault came a day after the Houthis accused a Saudi-led coalition of killing at least 33 people, including women and children, in an air strike on Yemen. Footage broadcast by the Houthi-run Al Masirah channel showed rescuers pulling bodies from the rubble of several buildings in al-Shariyah, a town east of the capital, Sanaa. Saba said 39 people had been injured, and Saudi Arabia has not commented.
Ceasefire collapse and renewed fighting in Yemen
A Saudi-led coalition has been fighting the Houthis for more than a decade in support of Yemen’s internationally recognised government, which has lost control of a large part of the country. The conflict had largely been dormant in recent years, but fighting has intensified since the outbreak of the Iran war.
An informal ceasefire fell apart in July, after the Tehran-backed group announced a “maritime embargo” against Saudi Arabia and began missile and drone attacks on Saudi airports, oil facilities and tankers in the Red Sea. The Houthis said they were retaliating against what they call a Saudi blockade of their territory, and an air strike on Sanaa airport, which Saudi Arabia said was meant to stop an Iranian aircraft from landing. Major fighting has since resumed between Houthi forces and troops aligned with Yemen’s Saudi-backed government. The United Nations says more than 1,600 people have been killed and over 300,000 displaced since the fighting resumed.
