Two Saudi oil facilities located along a major pipeline were hit in a drone attack on Tuesday, which prompted Riyadh to temporarily shut down the pipeline and carry out retaliatory airstrikes on Houthi positions in Yemen.
Qatar's Al Jazeera broadcaster has shared what it calls satellite imagery showing the damage dealt to a Saudi oil station in a Houthi drone attack.
According to Al Jazeera, the images were taken one day after the attack on Saudi Aramco's pumping station 8, located some 330 kilometres west of the kingdom's capital, Riyadh.
Satellite image analysis is said to have shown a four-metre fracture in the tube, which resulted in crude oil leaking over an estimated area of 1,000 square meters.
It is understood that the precision of the attack, which apparently hadn't affected the nearby administrative and residential buildings, rules out claims that the pipeline hit was coincidental.
While Riyadh is yet to comment on the images, Saudi officials confirmed last Tuesday that pumping station 9 was also targeted in the drone attacks. The two stations sit along the key East-West pipeline, which stretches across the entire peninsula from the Abqaiq oil field in the east to the Yanbu oil terminal on the Red Sea coast.
Riyadh claimed that the attacks were ordered by Iran and carried out by Houthi militants, who are fighting against the Saudi-led coalition in Yemen.
Iran rejected the…
