The official spokesman for the Civil Defense in Saudi Arabia said on Wednesday that a person of an unspecified Arab nationality was injured as a result of fragments of a ballistic missile falling in the capital, Riyadh, after the missile was intercepted and destroyed.
The spokesman pointed out that the interception of the missile that the Ansar Allah Houthi movement in Yemen was accused of launching also led to “limited material damage” to a residential house and a vehicle.
Earlier, the Saudi authorities announced that four people were injured as a result of the falling debris of two missiles they intercepted over Riyadh, and a fire broke out in a building belonging to Aramco in Dhahran, east of the Kingdom, amid an escalation in mutual attacks between the Saudi-led coalition and the Ansar Allah group.
The Saudi Civil Defense said that the injured were two women, a man, and a child, and that the debris from the two missiles fired by the group caused limited damage to fifteen homes in the capital.
The Ansar Allah group announced earlier today that it had targeted Aramco facilities in Dhahran, King Khalid International Airport, and an Aramco refinery in Riyadh, without specifying a date for carrying out the attacks, and vowed to continue targeting Saudi airports and oil installations in the coming days.
The group's military spokesman, Yahya Saree, said that the attacks were carried out using a large number of ballistic missiles, cruise missiles and drones.
The group called on international shipping companies, civilians and workers to evacuate airports and oil installations, which it described as “legitimate military targets.”
A Saudi Ministry of Energy official reported that an attack targeted an Aramco administrative building on Tuesday evening, causing a “limited fire,” without injuries or deaths.
Three people with direct knowledge of the matter told Reuters that Aramco's headquarters in Dhahran was extensively damaged in Tuesday's attack, and that the fire spread across several floors.
Two of them reported that operations continued normally, with employees working from home, while a fourth source said that some tasks were transferred to the company's offices around the world.
The Saudi Ministry of Energy described the fire as “limited” and confirmed that there were no injuries or deaths. Aramco did not immediately respond to a Reuters request for comment.
Agence France-Presse also quoted company employees as saying that a tower inside the headquarters was hit, but it said it was unable to enter the site and independently verify the extent of the damage.
King Khalid International Airport in Riyadh was subjected to four attacks, including an attack on Saturday that killed 13 people. According to Reuters, the authorities closed the airport until October 17, while airlines canceled flights to Saudi Arabia.
The attacks came after raids launched by the coalition, on Tuesday, on oil facilities in Sanaa and the Dhamar and Saada governorates, which it said were being used to fuel and supply the war effort of the Ansar Allah group and threaten Saudi Arabia and its waterways.
The raids included the Sabahah station of the Yemeni Oil Company on the outskirts of Sanaa, after the coalition called on civilians to evacuate it. The group's Al Masirah TV confirmed that the site had been targeted.
The group had vowed a "harsh and painful" response, and warned workers in Saudi oil facilities against approaching sites it said might be targeted.
The World Food Program said on Wednesday that the fighting had cut off access to life-saving humanitarian aid to about 800,000 people in Taiz and other areas affected by the conflict.
He explained that the fighting and road closures made some areas inaccessible, and that stocks of wheat flour were almost exhausted, while the remaining food in local markets may only be sufficient for a short period.
The program's representative and country director in Yemen, Al-Khader Dalloum, warned that the situation could quickly turn into a humanitarian catastrophe if aid cannot be transported safely and delivered to the most needy.
According to the programme, more than 18 million people across Yemen face severe food insecurity, and about 2.2 million children under five suffer from acute malnutrition.
Also in Yemen, the International Organization for Migration said that restrictions on access to Taiz impede the entry of residents, basic supplies and humanitarian aid, and push commodity prices to rise.
Ansar Allah fighters cut off a main road between Taiz and Aden last week. Government sources told Reuters that about 80,000 people fled the recent fighting.
A Taiz resident told the agency that the price of a bag of wheat rose from 42,000 Yemeni riyals to up to 60,000 within three days. A local official reported that the authorities are working to organize the distribution of available food stocks.
The Director of the International Monetary Fund, Kristalina Georgieva, warned on Wednesday that the attacks on Saudi Arabia could have negative repercussions on people “everywhere,” given the importance of the Kingdom’s economy to the region and the world, amid rising global energy costs.
The International Committee of the Red Cross warned on Wednesday that the escalation of fighting on multiple fronts is putting pressure on the fragile health system in Yemen, with hospitals facing a sharp rise in the number of war-wounded.
