September 15, 2019 08:34 rediff.com
Explosions and towering fireballs struck the heart of Saudi Arabia's oil empire on Saturday in an apparent wave of drone attacks claimed by Yemen's Houthi rebels.
The blows knocked out more than half the kingdom's oil output for days or more and threatened to drive up already high tensions between Iran and its foes in the Persian Gulf.
The predawn blasts on facilities of the state-run oil giant Aramco - which the rebel group claimed were carried out by a fleet of 10 drones - marked one of the most devastating strikes into Saudi territory claimed by the Iranian-allied Houthis in more than four years of war in Yemen.
It was also the most serious attack on Saudi Arabia's oil infrastructure in decades, which includes barrages of Scud missiles fired by Saddam Hussein's forces during the 1991 Gulf War. A NASA satellite image showed what appeared to be a long streak of black smoke flowing to the southwest from the Aramco site.
An Aramco statement said production of 5.7 million barrels of crude was suspended by the attack from "projectiles." That represents more than half of the kingdom's output and about 6 per cent of global oil supply - a shortfall that could send oil price sharply higher.
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