Houthi rebels claimed responsibility for conducting drone strikes that triggered major fires at two state-owned Aramco oil facilities in Saudi Arabia on Saturday, September 14.
"At 04:00 (0100 GMT), the industrial security teams of Aramco started dealing with fires at two of its facilities in Abqaiq and Khurais as a result of... drones," the official Saudi Press Agency reported without identifying the source of the attacks.
According to the Saudi interior ministry spokesman, the fires have been contained but no reports about the extent of the damage or casualties have been revealed yet.
The Abqaiq oil field, which is about 60 km south-west of Dhahran in Saudi Arabia's Eastern Province, has the largest oil processing plant. The other targeted area -- Khurais is around 200 km further south-west and has the country's second-largest oilfield.
The Houthis have claimed responsibility for the attacks. A statement released said the attack was carried by 10 drones and warned for future attacks against Saudi Arabia, reported Al Jazeera.
"These attacks are our right, and we warn the Saudis that our targets will keep expanding," said Houthi spokesman Yahya Saree aired on its official Al Masirah TV.
"We have the right to strike back in retaliation to the air strikes and the targeting of our civilians for the last five years," he added.
The country had witnessed similar attacks last month after Iran-backed Houthi fighters conducted drone attacks on the Shaybah natural oil liquefication. In May, two oil stations were attacked.
While both the attacks triggered fires, production continued.
Tensions between Iran and Saudi Arabia have heightened after the country was blamed for attacking four oil tankers, two of them Saudi flagged, in the Gulf of Oman in June and July this year.
Conclusions of an international investigation conducted by Norway and Saudi Arabia were relayed to the United Nations Security Council in June in which a "state actor" was implicated.
Both Saudi Arabia and the United States held Iran to be responsible for the attacks. Tehran has denied the accusations.
The Yemen War
Saudi Arabia and Iran's conflict began during the outbreak of the Yemen war in 2015 after Saudi's Sunni Muslim-led coalition with the United Arab Emirates supported President Abdrabbuh Mansour Hadi. After the President was forced to flee the capital Sanaa by the Houthis, the Saudi government have led a coalition against Iran and have launched strikes against the Houthis.
World Health Organisation (WHO) in September stated millions of people in Yemen are suffering from a severe shortage of food and medical care, affecting at least 2.5 million malnourished children who are without access to life-saving drugs due to the ongoing war.
