A number of energy sector facilities in the southern region of Saudi Arabia came under attack in the early hours of Tuesday, according to the Saudi energy ministry, causing fires at a number of locations.
State-controlled Saudi Aramco temporarily halted operations at some of those facilities, the energy ministry said, as specialised emergency response teams work to contain the fire, secure the sites and assess the damage.
The attacks had resulted "in injuries of varying severity among several citizens and residents", it said.
The authorities are working to implement contingency measures to ensure business and operational continuity in accordance with company policy, the ministry said.
The energy ministry did not specify which facilities were targeted, or who was behind these latest attacks.
But the military spokesman for Yemen's Houthi rebels, Yahya Saree, has since issued a statement to say that the group had carried out "an extensive military operation" targeting Saudi Aramco in Abha, Najran and Jizan, the location of a key 400,000 b/d refinery that has been targeted by the Houthis in the past.
Saree said "dozens of ballistic missiles and drones" were launched at Saudi Arabia, and that the strikes had "caused significant damage" to the facilities.
The Houthi statement largely aligns with a statement issued hours earlier by Turki al-Maliki, the spokesman for the Saudi-led military coalition fighting in Yemen, who said the group had targeted "civilian and economic sites" in the cities of Abha, Khamis Mushait, Jizan and Najran, resulting in injuries to more than 70 civilians.
Key Saudi infrastructure, including energy facilities, have increasingly come under attack by the Houthis since the militia group declared an end to a period of "de-escalation" with Riyadh in mid-July.
The Houthis have since claimed several attacks on key Saudi energy facilities, including the 400,000 b/d Jizan refinery and the key 7mn b/d East-West pipeline that the kingdom has been using to move significant volumes of crude across the country in recent months, for export from the Red Sea.
The Financial Times reported that the Jizan refinery had come under a new attack by the Houthi rebels on Monday. A source with knowledge of the events said the attacks announced by the ministry today were in addition to yesterday's incident.
It is as yet unclear whether the Jizan refinery was again targeted in the Tuesday attacks.
