Saudi Arabia said its air defences shot down missiles launched by Yemen’s Houthi movement toward Riyadh and the country’s east on Sunday, and that falling debris from one attempted attack damaged an administrative building of the state oil company Saudi Aramco in the capital. No one was reported killed or injured.
The spokesman for the Saudi-led coalition, Major General Turki al-Maliki, said air defences intercepted and destroyed two ballistic missiles launched by the Houthis toward Riyadh. The coalition later said it had also intercepted two cruise missiles in Riyadh and the southern region, and an earlier coalition statement reported a ballistic missile intercepted as it headed toward the Eastern Province, where most of Saudi Arabia’s oil industry sits.
Saudi Civil Defence issued danger alerts and then all-clear messages in Riyadh and in the Eastern Province cities of Dhahran, Dammam, Abqaiq and Al-Ahsa. Dhahran is home to Aramco’s headquarters. Residents in the capital heard loud explosions in the early hours.
The Energy Ministry, in a statement carried by the Saudi Press Agency, said debris from an attempted attack damaged an Aramco administrative building in the King Abdullah Financial District, causing limited damage and no injuries or deaths. A Reuters witness saw blown-out windows across several floors of the Aramco Tower. The ministry did not say the building was struck directly, and Zark News is not reporting that it was. The damage described by the ministry came from falling debris.
The Houthis had not formally claimed the launches when the first coalition statements were issued. Houthi military spokesman Yahya Saree later claimed a series of missile and drone attacks aimed at Aramco facilities and Riyadh’s airport, according to regional reporting. Those claims could not be independently confirmed, and Saudi authorities reported no damage to oil production or exports.
The exchange follows Houthi claims of Saudi-led strikes near Sanaa on Saturday, in the district of Bani Hushaysh, where the Houthi health ministry has reported heavy casualties. Zark News has reported those figures as claims from the Houthi side, and they have not been independently verified.
Why it matters to readers: the Eastern Province holds most of Saudi Arabia’s oil production and refining. Attacks that reach Riyadh or the oil region, even when they are intercepted, move energy prices and raise the risk of a wider regional war. The attacks also come during the Umrah pilgrimage season, when pilgrims from around the world pass through Saudi airports every week.
