Attack On Saudi Aramco Huge Fire In Jeddah – Free PDF Download

What has happened?

• Yemen’s Houthis rebels have acknowledged a series of attacks on Saudi Arabia after state media in the kingdom reported rocket and drone strikes targeting an oil depot in Jeddah and other facilities in Riyadh.
• Yemen’s Houthis said they launched attacks on Saudi energy facilities on Friday and
• The Saudi-led coalition said oil giant Aramco’s petroleum products distribution station in Jeddah was hit, causing a fire in two storage tanks but no casualties.

• A huge plume of black smoke could be seen rising over the Red Sea city where the Saudi Arabian Grand Prix is taking place this weekend, an eyewitness said.
• While Saudi Arabia and state-run Saudi Aramco did not immediately acknowledge the blaze, it appeared to be centred on a fuel depot that the Houthis have previously targeted.
• Later on Friday, Houthi military spokesperson Yahya Sarea said the group attacked Aramco’s facilities with missiles and the Ras Tanura and Rabigh refineries with drones.

• The attacks targeted “Aramco facilities in Jeddah and vital facilities in the capital of the Saudi enemy, Riyadh”, tweeted Sarea.
• Facilities of oil giant Aramco were also attacked in Jizan, Najran, Ras Tanura and Rabigh with “a large number of drones”, he added.
• The Saudi led coalition, said the kingdom’s air defence system destroyed two explosive-laden drones targeting Najran.

F1 race

• Following the Jeddah attack, people on the F1 track could see the large black smoke cloud in the distance.
• Drivers and teams later decided to go ahead with the race.
• “We have received total assurance that the country’s safety is first,” Formula One chief executive Stefano Domenicali told reporters after a meeting with drivers, teams and local authorities.

Past attacks

• The Houthis have carried out thousands of cross-border missile and drone attacks into Saudi Arabia in the years since Riyadh launched its aerial assault on Yemen, which has killed tens of thousands of Yemenis.
• Aramco suffered a major attack on its facilities in 2019, when strikes on the Abqaiq and Khurais facilities cut off roughly half the kingdom’s oil production in one day.
• Those attacks in 2019 were the biggest on Saudi oil infrastructure since Saddam Hussein’s invasion of Kuwait in 1990, when the Iraqi military fired Scud missiles into the kingdom.

War in Yemen

• Yemen has been in the grip of a civil war since 2014, when the Iran-backed Houthis ousted the government.
• The rebels took control of the country’s northern parts, including the capital, Sanaa, forcing the internationally recognized government to flee to the south.
• The Saudi-led coalition has been fighting the rebels in Yemen since 2015.
• In response, the Houthis have frequently targeted the kingdom’s southern region with missile and drone attacks.

• On Saturday, Saudi state media said the coalition fighting in Yemen had begun a military operation – Including air attacks on Yemen’s Houthi-controlled capital Sanaa, and the Red Sea port city of Hodeidah – to stop attacks on its oil facilities and “protect global energy sources”.
• It said the operation was in its early stages and that Yemen’s Houthis should bear the consequences of their “hostile behaviour”.

Peace talk rejected

• The six-nation Gulf Cooperation Council invited the Houthis for talks on Yemen on the conflict in Riyadh from March 29.
• But earlier this week, the rebels said they would welcome talks with the coalition only if the venue is a neutral country, including some Gulf states.
• It also said that the priority was lifting “arbitrary” restrictions on Yemeni ports and Sanaa airport.

Q) Which among the following country does not border with Red Sea?

1. Egypt
2. Sudan
3. Eritrea
4. Ethiopia

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