A ballistic missile struck an office tower in the Saudi Aramco headquarters complex in Dhahran, damaging the top three floors and setting the building on fire, according to a company source quoted by Reuters. The complex houses an operations center overseeing oil rigs, pipelines, refineries and export terminals. Saudi Aramco made no official comment.
The strike came as Houthi missile and drone attacks on Saudi Arabia escalated, alongside retaliatory strikes by the Saudi-led coalition in Yemen. The coalition said it intercepted a missile in Dhahran and that fragments fell in a residential area. It also reported intercepting and destroying drones and missiles in Riyadh and the southern region.
Civilian Targets and Energy Infrastructure
Houthi spokesperson Yahya Saree had threatened a “harsh and painful” response to Saudi-led strikes on Sanaa, naming the Aramco headquarters in Dhahran and an oil refinery in Riyadh as possible targets. The group warned Saudi oil workers to stay away from sites that could come under attack. On Telegram, Houthi military spokesman Brig. Gen. Yahya Saree said any Saudi attack on Sanaa would draw a “firm and painful” response in Riyadh.
The coalition said it attacked the Yemen Petroleum Company's Sabah central station, a fuel depot on Sanaa's outskirts and other sites, aiming to “neutralizing the capabilities of Houthis” to threaten Saudi Arabia, Yemen and international waterways. Before the operation, it warned civilians to evacuate the Yemen Oil Company site and nearby storage areas in al-Subaha, western Sanaa. The area sits on a hill overlooking the capital and isn't populated, though the public uses a nearby fuel station. Houthi-run Al-Masirah television reported strikes on oil facilities west of Sanaa but offered no evidence; witnesses reported explosions, and it wasn't immediately clear what the strikes had hit.
Attacks have also hit airports and killed civilians. The National reported that King Khalid International Airport in Riyadh suspended operations until midnight on October 17 after a Saturday attack killed 13 people and injured more than 300; another attack on Sunday killed one person. At least 20 people had been killed in attacks since the previous week on King Khalid International Airport and Abha International Airport. The King Fahd International Airport in Dammam came under attack on Sunday evening, and officials were assessing the damage.
Saudi state television showed flashes from Saturday's missile strike on Riyadh's passenger terminal as travellers, including pilgrims in white robes, ran for cover. Ali, a passenger from Hyderabad travelling with his family on an Umrah pilgrimage, was injured in that attack. The Indian embassy in Saudi Arabia confirmed his death on Sunday and said it was helping his family arrange repatriation of his remains.
Iranian Technology and Regional Reach
Former senior US intelligence official Norman Roule said Houthi attacks on civilian targets should count as terrorism, citing threats to Saudi Arabia, foreign nationals in the Gulf, international shipping and the global economy. He said Yemeni government forces backed by the coalition had put the group under battlefield pressure, and that it might retaliate against politically and economically sensitive sites in Saudi Arabia. “If you are the Houthi leadership, or you are Iran advising the Houthi leadership, your position at this point is going to be: Attack highly sensitive economic and political locations within the Kingdom,” he said.
Roule said the Houthis could build basic missile frames and weaponry but relied on advanced Iranian technology. Supplies reached Yemen on small vessels through Iranian smuggling networks, directly or after transshipment through East Africa, he said, while fishing and smuggling boats made interception difficult. Roule described the Houthis as both partners and proxies of Iran, while cautioning that not every Houthi action should be assumed to have come on Tehran's orders.
He said the Houthis aimed to control Yemen and were building a regional footprint across the Red Sea and into East Africa. Roule pointed to cooperation with Al-Shabab in Somalia and warned that such links could support drone operations beyond the southern Red Sea toward eastern Mediterranean shipping routes and the Suez Canal. He also said the group had largely avoided Russian and Chinese shipping, complicating assumptions that it could simply close the Bab Al-Mandab Strait.
Air Defences and International Response
US Central Command chief Adm Brad Cooper said the United States and regional allies were deploying the “largest air-defence umbrella in the world.” He said the Middle East Air Defence network had intercepted “thousands of Iranian attack drones and missiles” through linked national systems. Dr Anwar Gargash, diplomatic adviser to President Sheikh Mohamed, said Gulf security was “indivisible” and that attacks on Saudi Arabia undermined the security of the UAE and all Gulf states.
Iran's Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi told Saudi Foreign Minister Prince Faisal bin Farhan that Tehran was ready to help broker a “political solution,” Iranian state media reported. Egypt's Foreign Minister Badr Abdelatty urged the Houthis to halt their attacks, saying, “There is no justification for these attacks, and they cannot be accepted.”
Roule said diplomacy couldn't replace security if the Houthis refused compromise. “This is a global threat,” he said, pointing to lives lost among Indians, Saudis and Americans. The Associated Press reported that Saudi Arabia was seeking more direct US military support; the United States had provided intelligence sharing, target identification and planning for a Saudi-led offensive but had held off on strikes against the Houthis. Reuters reported that Washington had so far rejected Saudi efforts to join the war directly.