Yemen’s Iran-aligned Houthi militants claimed on Tuesday that they targeted and hit Saudi Arabia’s largest oil processing facility, the Ras Tanura refinery, with a ballistic missile, marking a sharp escalation in regional conflict.
The intensifying cross-border hostilities between Yemen and Saudi Arabia have further disrupted global energy supplies and escalated fears of a broader regional warfare, eight months into the ongoing Iran war. In addition to the refinery strike, Houthi military officials claimed to have targeted Saudi military aircraft and successfully repelled an advance by Saudi-backed coalition forces near the strategically vital Bab el-Mandeb Strait in the Red Sea.
Houthi military spokesperson Yahya Saree stated that the missile strike triggered a fire at the Ras Tanura complex, which houses a major refining unit alongside a strategic shipping terminal located on the Gulf, west of the Strait of Hormuz.
Saudi government and security authorities did not immediately issue an official confirmation regarding the missile strike.
The Ras Tanura installation, which possesses a daily processing capacity of 550,000 barrels per day, had previously been shut down temporarily during the initial months of the regional conflict as a precautionary defense measure.
Virtually all of Saudi Arabia’s crude oil exports pass through two primary maritime hubs: the Ras Tanura facility on the Arabian Gulf and the Yanbu port on the Red Sea, both of which have been repeatedly targeted in Houthi drone and missile offensives.
Meanwhile, Bloomberg News cited a source familiar with the situation stating that emergency response teams in Saudi Arabia had successfully contained and extinguished a localized fire near the Ras Tanura terminal.
For more details: Navamalayalam.com