ISLAMABAD: Pakistan on Tuesday condemned the launch of several ballistic missiles and 25 armed drones into Saudi Arabia which targetted Aramco oil facilities in Jeddah and the defence ministry in Riyadh.
The Saudi-led coalition fighting the Houthis in Yemen said late on Monday that one missile had been intercepted over the Saudi capital of Riyadh where residents reported loud blasts.
Aramco, which has a petroleum products distribution plant in Jeddah that the Iran-aligned Houthis had previously targeted, did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
There were no reports of casualties or significant damage from the latest Houthi strikes.
“Such attacks not only violate international law but also threaten peace and security of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia and the region. Pakistan calls for the immediate cessation of these attacks,” the Foreign Office said.
It also reaffirmed Pakistan’s “full support and solidarity” with the oil-rich Kingdom against “any threats to its security and territorial integrity”.
A spokesman for the Iran-backed movement said its forces had fired six armed drones at Aramco’s Jeddah complex and the King Fahad air base in Saudi’s Taif region, according to a statement broadcast on the group Massira TV. He said military sites in Riyadh and the city’s airport were also targeted.
The Houthi movement has stepped up cross-border attacks as the Saudi-led coalition has intensified its air strikes on the capital Sana’a and the gas-rich Marib region, which has this year become the focus of the seven-year-old war and where thousands of fighters from both sides have been killed.
In 2019, strikes on the state oil firm’s eastern region facilities knocked out more than half of the Kingdom’s oil output.
The Saudi-led coalition intervened in Yemen war in 2015 after the Houthis invaded Sana’a and ousted the internationally recognised government in 2014.
The Saudis accuse Iran of supplying the Houthis with missiles, while the UN investigators have said some of the weapons have technical characteristics similar to arms manufactured by Iran. The Houthis claim they manufacture their weapons themselves.
— With input from Reuters
