Riyadh’s iconic Aramco Tower was damaged in an air attack yesterday in the latest reputational blow inflicted on the Saudi regime by Yemen’s Houthi militia.
Saudi authorities said shrapnel fell on the building, that no one was hurt and damage was minor.
Witnesses saw a gaping hole in at least one floor and shattered windows and black marks on other floors.
The attack occurred during the morning rush hour on the first day of the Saudi work week.
People in the area heard loud booms of air defense.
The architecturally distinct 32-story building is situated in the capital’s financial district. It hosts over 140 companies, including 25 regional headquarters for multinationals.
Employees of many companies in Riyadh continue to work from home due to ongoing Houthi missile and drone attacks.
The Houthis claimed to have targeted several sites yesterday linked to Aramco, the Saudi state oil conglomerate.
Upper floors of an administrative building at Aramco headquarters in the eastern city of Dhahran in oil-rich Eastern Province caught fire in a Houthi air attack late on 13 October. No one was injured but offices of senior executives reportedly were gutted.
Oil production facilities in Eastern Province also have been struck.
In addition, the Iran-backed Houthis have scored glaring hits on Saudi Arabian airports.
Two people were killed and eight wounded in a 21 October missile attack on Dammam’s King Fahd International Airport, which adjoins Dhahran.
Saudi authorities said the fatalities were a Saudi and an Indian resident and that the injured suffered wounds ranging from minor to serious.
Flights to the airport were diverted but soon resumed.
It was the second known attack on Dammam airport.
A missile struck near parked planes late on 10 October, harming no one but forcing a brief suspension of flights.
Riyadh’s King Khalid International Airport largely has remained closed since it suffered four deadly missile attacks from 6 to 10 October, including one that killed 13 people and injured 309.
King Abdulaziz International Airport in Jeddah, the country’s busiest travel hub, and Dammam airport remain open with frequently disrupted schedules.
Multiple foreign airlines have suspended flights to and from Riyadh and other Saudi cities for weeks to come.
In an enormous blow to its prestige, the Saudi royal regime cancelled its signature investment conference which had been scheduled for Riyadh from 26 to 29 October. Global banking, corporate and policy luminaries were on the guest list but were unlikely to show up.
Most Houthi air attacks target Najran, Jizan and Asir Provinces in the southwestern corner of Saudi Arabia, close to the Yemeni border and the Red Sea.
Jeddah, which is 450 miles (730 kilometers) from the Yemeni border, the nearby mountain resort city of Taif and the oil export city of Yanbu, still farther up the Red Sea coast, have been regular targets.
At least 200 people have been injured and three killed in Houthi missile and drone attacks in the southwest and farther north near the Red Sea coast since September.
Steady missile and drone attacks on Riyadh and Eastern Province since October have been a response to heightened Saudi aerial bombing in Yemen aimed at rolling back a Houthi ground offensive against local forces backed by Saudi Arabia.
There is no end in sight to fighting in Yemen, meaning Saudi Arabia will remain under missile and drone fire.
News reports indicate that Saudi stocks of interceptors for US-made Patriot anti-missile batteries are running short.
A more basic problem is that Houthi missile and drone capabilities have advanced significantly since the 2015-2022 war with Saudi Arabia, when Riyadh and Jeddah occasionally were targeted.
Saudi Arabia is facing its gravest strategic crisis in decades.
If the current relatively low intensity combat between Iran and the United States in the vicinity of the Strait of Hormuz at the mouth of the Gulf were to escalate, risks of Iranian missile and drone attacks on eastern Saudi Arabia and the other Gulf Arab countries would increase significantly.
It should be noted that the Iranian regime’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), based immediately across the Gulf, has far greater ability to strike Dammam and other points in eastern Saudi Arabia than the Houthis have.
All but critical travel to Saudi Arabia should be put on hold.
Personnel should avoid all Saudi airports. The alternative for Riyadh and Dammam is airports in Bahrain and Qatar, with airports in the United Arab Emirates and in some cases Kuwait fallback options. The alternative for Jeddah and Yanbu is Jordanian airports, if not travel to airports in Gulf Arab countries.
In addition to airports, oil industry facilities, military bases and major government buildings are prime Houthi missile and drone targets and should be avoided.
Personnel throughout Saudi Arabia constantly should monitor security advice from local authorities and their embassies.
The southwestern provinces of Najran, Jizan and Asir should be avoided entirely. Taif ideally should be avoided.
Throughout Saudi Arabia, no information about or images of missile or drone attacks or military-related apparatus should be shared by text, email or on social media due to the strictly enforced wartime censorship. The US Embassy said Americans recently have been arrested for sharing war-related images.
Personnel may undertake travel to other countries south of Turkey with the exceptions of Iran, Yemen, Lebanon, Syria and Iraq.
Personnel traveling to the Gulf Arab countries, Jordan or Israel constantly should monitor regional tensions. They and their employers should be cognizant that commercial flights could be disrupted if US-Iran hostilities escalate and that employers would bear the responsibility of repatriating stranded personnel.
Personnel in all Gulf Arab countries should steer well clear of US diplomatic facilities, oil and gas infrastructure, and military bases – all of which are potential IRGC missile and drone targets. They should monitor the advice of local authorities and their embassies. In the event of an air attack alert, personnel outdoors should seek shelter and those indoors should give wide berth to windows. High-rises are not ideal places to be during air attack alerts, and those in one should keep in mind that underground parking garages are relatively secure from drones but not immune and that stairways rather than elevators should be used in the event of drone attack or fire.
Personnel in Israel should remain well clear of the border with Lebanon, where a fragile truce is in place between Israeli troops and the local Shia militia Hizbollah, an Iranian proxy. They should familiarize themselves with the nearest bomb shelters and be prepared to heed air attack alerts and related instructions from authorities.
Personnel in Jordan should monitor advisories from local authorities and their embassies.
