Official tour the site of a missile attack in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia. - Screencapture Via AFP

Official tour the site of a missile attack in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia.

Screencapture Via AFP

Yemeni Houthi forces supporting Iran staged a missile attack Monday morning on an oil distribution station in west Saudi Arabia, putting a 500,000-barrel storage tank out of commission.

Operations resumed three hours after the attack on the Saudi Aramco facility in Jeddah, Saudi Aramco reports.

Shortly before 4 a.m., a missile struck the rim of the storage tank and exploded, punching a hole about two meters square in the roof. Photos published after the attack clearly show impact damage.

Fixed fire protection systems activated within minutes with an emergency response team arriving soon after, authorities report. Firefighters extinguished the fire resulting from the attack within 40 minutes.

The North Jeddah facility consists of 13 storage tanks with a total capacity of 5.2 million barrels. Isolated from the bulk of Saudi Aramco facilities, the station distributes more than 120,000 barrels of diesel oil, gasoline and jet fuel daily.

Saudi Aramco did not disclose the contents of the damaged tank nor how much product it contained when struck. The tank remained out of service as of Tuesday.

In September 2019, Houthi rebels claimed responsibility for a drone attack on two Saudi Aramco facilities that reduced Saudi crude output 5.7 million barrels a day, more than five percent of the world’s supply.

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