SAUDI OFFICIAL SAYS TERROR ATTACK BEHIND JEDDAH FUEL TANK BLAST

Mon 23 November 2020:

A missile fired by Houthi militants in Yemen sparked an explosion and fire at a fuel distribution site near Jeddah on Monday.

The blast took place at 3.50 a.m. and causing a fire in a fuel tank at the petroleum products distribution station, north of the city, Saudi Arabia’s energy ministry said.

The official noted however, did not accuse any group of the attack.

He added that firefighting teams managed to extinguish the fire and did not report any casualties from the blast.

The official also confirmed that the blast did not affect the supplying of fuel from the station to its customers.

Earlier in the day, the Houthi rebel group’s spokesman, Yahya Saree, said his group targeted a distribution station of Saudi Arabia’s state-owned oil company Saudi Aramco in Jeddah with a rocket.

“These terrorist and disruptive activities that are committed against vital facilities […] aim to target the security and stability of the energy supply route to the world and the world economy,” the Saudi official added.

“The terrorist, Iran-backed Houthi militia has been positively identified as the culprits of this cowardly terrorist assault,” coalition spokesman Brig.-Gen. Turki Al-Maliki said.

The attack, he said, was not just an attack on Saudi Arabia’s national assets, “but on the core of the global economy and its supply routes, as well as the security of global energy.”

He said the attack was a continuation of attacks on other oil facilities in the Kingdom, including a cruise missile and drone assault in Abqaiq and Khurais last year. Those attacks were initially claimed by the Houthis, although evidence suggested they came direct from Iran.

“Substantiated evidence proved the direct involvement of the Iranian regime in those terrorist assaults using Iranian-made advanced conventional weapons,” Al-Maliki said.

The Houthi rebel group regularly announces rocket and drone attacks on Saudi territories, saying they are in response to the Saudi-led coalition’s assault on Yemen.

Yemen has been beset by violence and chaos since 2014, when Houthi rebels overran much of the country, including the capital Sana’a.

The crisis escalated in 2015 when a Saudi-led coalition launched a devastating air campaign aimed at rolling back Houthi territorial gains.

More than 100,000 Yemenis, including civilians, are believed to have been killed in the conflict, which has led to the world’s worst humanitarian crisis, with millions at risk of starvation.

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