A building belonging to Saudi oil giant Aramco in the financial district of the capital Riyadh was damaged in a missile attack.
The attack on the King Abdullah financial district was claimed by the Iran-aligned Houthis and came after the Saudi Civil Defense issued an early warning of a potential threat to the city.
Videos circulating on social media and seen by CNN show several floors of the Aramco building damaged and windows blown out. But Saudi officials said the impact would be minimal.
“Saudi Aramco’s administration building in Riyadh was attacked in an attempted attack,” the Saudi state news agency reported on Sunday, citing a Saudi Energy Ministry official.
“The incident resulted in falling debris and minor damage to the building, but no injuries or fatalities were reported,” authorities reported.
However, one witness said he saw an ambulance heading towards the area.
CNN has contacted the Ministry of Information via email for further details.
The Houthis, who have fired missiles and drones at multiple targets across Saudi Arabia over the past three months, said the attack on Riyadh’s financial district was one of several they carried out against Aramco targets. There was no initial comment from Saudi authorities on the additional allegations.
The Houthis said they were also targeting Saudi-led ground forces across Yemen.
The Saudi-led coalition said it intercepted and destroyed two cruise missiles in Riyadh and the southern region. Coalition spokesman Turki al-Maliki wrote in a post on X that air defense forces “also intercepted and destroyed two ballistic missiles launched by the terrorist Houthi militia towards Riyadh.”
The missile attack on Riyadh came a day after Yemen’s Houthi-run health ministry said a Saudi airstrike had killed at least 33 people, including women and children, near the capital Sanaa.
Mahdi al-Mashat, a senior Houthi official, said on Saturday: “We will punish the Saudi regime for its crimes against the Yemeni people.”
Last month, one missile attack on Riyadh International Airport killed 13 people, and another attack on the airport killed several more.
The Houthis said they would continue firing missiles and drones at Saudi Arabia as long as Saudi Arabia bombed areas it controlled and enforced a territorial blockade.
Saudi Arabia spent $83 billion on defense last year, firmly ranking among the world’s top 10 military spenders, according to the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute. In addition to U.S. fighter jets, it has acquired Patriot and THAAD air defense systems, as well as a variety of advanced weapons from France and Britain.
But Saudi Arabia has much to protect. It covers an area about one-fifth the size of the United States and is under threat from three sides: Iran, the Iranian-backed Iraqi militia, and the Houthis.
Saudi Arabia has intercepted many of the missiles and drones launched by the Houthis. But some people can overcome it. The Department of Defense faces difficult choices in distributing existing systems with many facilities vulnerable to attack.
Analysts say the Houthis have learned how to overwhelm Saudi defenses using a combination of ballistic and cruise missiles and long-range drones.
In Yemen, a Saudi-backed coalition is trying to prevent the Houthis from moving further south toward the port of Aden, which is held by the internationally recognized government.
The Houthis have frequently targeted Aden’s airport with missiles in recent weeks after seizing control of Yemen’s Red Sea coast in September.
Hostilities between the Iranian-backed Houthis and Saudi Arabia flared up in July, shattering a 2022 UN-brokered ceasefire that had all but halted fighting between the two countries.
Ibrahim Dahman, Teele Rebane and Farida Elsebai contributed reporting.
