Aramco clears its Dhahran headquarters as drones are shot down over Riyadh and Madinah

Saudi Aramco ordered staff out of its headquarters in Dhahran on Thursday and told them to work from home, the first time the state oil giant has emptied its head office since the war with Iran began. Six people familiar with the order said the company gave no reason, and Aramco did not comment.

The order came on a day of fresh Houthi fire across the kingdom. The Saudi-led coalition said four drones were destroyed over Riyadh and Madinah before they reached their targets, after four more were brought down earlier in the day over the Eastern Province, where Dhahran lies.

What the Houthis claimed

Yahya Saree, the military spokesman for Yemen’s Houthis, said in a televised statement that the group had attacked Aramco facilities at the Red Sea port of Yanbu and the Saudi defence ministry building in Riyadh over the previous 48 hours. He also claimed attacks on King Fahd International Airport in Dammam and on Abha International Airport. Saudi authorities did not confirm the Yanbu or Riyadh strikes.

Saree said the attacks were retaliation for Saudi military action in Yemen and warned that the kingdom would face serious consequences if Yemeni tribes were targeted. The group, he said, would keep up its campaign until strikes on Yemen stopped and the blockade was lifted. He put the number of people killed or wounded by Saudi attacks on Yemen since mid-July at 562. The coalition, for its part, has warned it will respond “firmly”.

Earlier this month a Houthi strike on the same Dhahran headquarters set several floors on fire.

Indians among the casualties

The Dammam airport attack on Wednesday evening killed two people, a Saudi citizen and an Indian national, and wounded eight. Saudi authorities said the injured included two Indians, two Yemenis, two Bangladeshis, a Saudi and a Nepali. The General Authority of Civil Aviation said on Thursday that flights at Dammam had resumed and traffic was back to normal.

Separately, the Energy Ministry said debris from an intercepted drone fell near an Aramco refinery at the Shaybah oilfield, killing two people, a Filipino and a Nepali, and wounding two others, including an Indian. The ministry said the incident happened outside the facility’s boundaries and did not affect operations.

Saree also said the Houthis were rescuing a boat carrying 14 Indians that had been attacked off Jabal Zuqar island near the Bab el-Mandeb strait, and blamed Saudi Arabia. Riyadh did not respond to the claim.

Markets on edge

Saudi Arabia’s benchmark TASI index fell 2.5% on Thursday. Brent crude rose more than $3 to $111.88 a barrel by mid-afternoon in London, after touching $112.55, its highest since 18 May.

The fighting between the Houthis and the Saudi-led coalition resumed in July and ended a truce brokered by the UN in 2022. On Wednesday the US State Department ordered some diplomats and their families to leave its missions in Saudi Arabia.