Saudi stops drones heading for oil field in wave of new Gulf attacks
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The Shaybah oil field, crucial to Saudi Arabia’s vast oil production, is operated by Saudi giant Aramco.
PHOTO: REUTERS
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RIYADH - Saudi Arabia said on March 11 it had intercepted a wave of seven drones heading towards a strategic oil field, as Iran renewed fire on its Gulf neighbours and their energy infrastructure.
“Two drones heading towards the Shaybah oil field were intercepted and destroyed,” the defence ministry said in a post on X.
It said another five drones were intercepted and destroyed in separate posts.
The Shaybah oil field, crucial to the kingdom’s vast oil production, sits near the border with the United Arab Emirates and is operated by Saudi giant Aramco, one of the world’s biggest companies by market capitalisation.
The kingdom also said it intercepted seven ballistic missiles in separate attacks targeting the country’s eastern region and the Prince Sultan Air Base, where an American soldier was hit on March 1 and died a week later.
The United Arab Emirates reported a new missile and drone attack from Iran on March 11.
The Gulf state’s defence ministry said its air defences were responding to an unspecified number of missiles and drones, without providing further details about the target or location of the attack.
Iran’s Revolutionary Guards said on March 10 they had launched a new salvo of missiles at Israeli cities including Tel Aviv and US targets in the region.
The elite force later said it targeted US bases in Bahrain and Iraqi Kurdistan, according to Iranian media reports early on March 11.
In a statement carried by the Tasnim news agency, the Guards said “a mass” of ballistic missiles had been fired at the base of the US Navy’s Fifth Fleet in Bahrain and at three other facilities in the Kurdish region of Iraq.
Bahrain has been targeted by waves of Iranian drones and missiles, which have so far killed two people in the country, according to the authorities.
The Guards later said that at least two missiles targeted a United States base in Kuwait, according to Iranian news agencies Fars and Mehr.
“The American base in Arifjan was... hit by firing 2 missiles by the IRGC Ground Force missile unit,” the Guards said, Fars and Mehr reported, referring to Camp Arifjan located south of Kuwait City.
The Kuwaiti authorities have not yet commented on the reports, but the paramilitary National Guard later said on March 11 that eight drones targeting the country were downed. AFP
