Militias in Iraq attack Saudi oil facilities for a second day
The Saudi Defense Ministry says it intercepted the drones on Jul 28, without clarifying whether the facilities were damaged
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IRAN-BACKED militias in Iraq fired drones at oil facilities in Saudi Arabia’s Eastern Region for the second day in a row, piling pressure on the kingdom, which is grappling with a maritime blockade limiting its crude oil shipments.
The Saudi Defense Ministry said it had intercepted the drones on Tuesday (Jul 28), without clarifying whether the facilities were damaged.
Similar attacks were carried out from Iraq on Riyadh and the Eastern Region on Monday.
The Saudi government said Iraq must take all necessary steps to ensure that its territories are not used as a launching pad for such attacks. Iraqi Prime Minister Ali al-Zaidi is visiting Saudi Arabia on Thursday, according to Al Arabiya.
Iraq has set Sep 30 as a deadline for surrendering weapons held outside state institutions, as the premier seeks to deter the influence of militants in the country.
Iraq on Monday said it would not allow its territory to become a staging ground for assaults against neighboring countries.
Drones were also fired at Saudi Arabia from Iraq in May, as Gulf nations including Kuwait and the United Arab Emirates were hit from Iraqi territories throughout the ongoing Iran war.
Iran-affiliated militias in Yemen also carried out assaults on oil facilities on Riyadh and the Eastern Region, the Saudi cabinet said earlier on Tuesday.
The Houthis – a clan from Yemen’s north that took over the capital, Sanaa, in 2014 and triggered a civil war that drew in the Saudis and other Middle East states – claimed on Monday that they had targeted Saudi oil facilities with drones.
The Iranian-backed group earlier said it fired missiles and drones at facilities linked to oil giant Saudi Aramco in the Red Sea port towns of Jizan and Yanbu.
There was no confirmation from the Saudi government or Aramco that the company’s sites were targeted.
The Houthis last week announced a maritime blockade on Saudi Arabia, in response to what they say was the kingdom’s siege of Sanaa.
The group has since attacked tankers linked to Saudi Arabia in the Red Sea, which the kingdom opted to use for the bulk of its crude exports after the Strait of Hormuz, where about a fifth of the world’s oil flowed before the US-led war on Iran, remains near a standstill.
On Tuesday, the Houthis said they targeted a Saudi oil tanker with ballistic missiles for violating the maritime blockade, forcing it to retreat. BLOOMBERG
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