RIYADH, Saudi Arabia — Missiles fired at Riyadh were brought down early Sunday, and debris from the interceptions fell on an Aramco office building in the capital’s financial district, Saudi officials said.
Two of the missiles were ballistic. The Saudi-led coalition, which is fighting the Houthis in Yemen, said it destroyed both before they reached their targets, and later reported downing two cruise missiles as well, over Riyadh and in the south.
Saudi Arabia’s Energy Ministry said the Aramco building was damaged by falling debris after an attempted attack. The ministry put the damage down as limited and said no one was injured or killed.
A Reuters witness saw blown-out windows across several floors of the Aramco Tower in the King Abdullah Financial District, one of the tallest buildings in Riyadh.
Loud booms were heard across the capital earlier in the morning, shortly after Saudi Civil Defense sent out an early-warning alert for the Riyadh region. Authorities later announced the danger had passed.
Alerts in the Eastern Province
Civil Defense also issued warnings on Sunday for several areas of the oil-rich Eastern Province, including Dhahran, where Aramco has its headquarters, and later lifted them. The province holds most of Saudi Arabia’s oil and gas reserves, and Aramco’s headquarters suffered extensive damage in an attack in October.
Riyadh’s airport has been hit before in this round of fighting. On Oct. 10, an attack there killed 13 people and wounded more than 300, Saudi authorities say.
Reuters sought comment from Aramco. The company had not responded, and the Houthis had put out no word on Sunday’s attack.
A Fight That Resumed in July
None of this is new, exactly. What changed in July is that the shooting started again.
Houthi forces began hitting Saudi airports, ports and oil installations with missiles and drones, at a pace the kingdom had not seen since the U.N. truce took hold in 2022. That deal is gone now. The war in Yemen is once more part of the larger Middle East conflict set off in February, when the U.S. and Israel attacked Iran.
Saudi warplanes have been striking back inside Yemen. The latest raids came on Saturday, near Sanaa. At least 33 people died there, the Houthi-run health ministry says. Riyadh says it is still looking into that report.
Go back to 2014 and the shape of it is familiar. Houthi fighters took Sanaa that year and forced the recognised government out. Saudi Arabia answered in 2015 at the head of an Arab coalition, trying to put that government back.
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