An attempted attack damaged Aramco's tower in Riyadh's main financial district on Sunday. It came on the first day Riyadh's schools reopened for in-person classes after three weeks of remote learning.
Debris fell on an administrative building belonging to the state oil company, causing limited damage but no injuries or deaths, an official at the Energy Ministry said in a statement carried by the Saudi Press Agency. Authorities responded right away, the official said.
The building is the Aramco Tower in King Abdullah Financial District, one of the tallest in the district. Windows were blown out across several floors, Reuters reported, citing a witness.
The Saudi-led coalition said it intercepted two missiles that Yemen's Houthis fired toward Riyadh. Aramco has not commented.
The alerts reached the oil heartland too. Civil Defense briefly warned residents of Buqayq, home to Aramco's Abqaiq oil processing plant, as well as Al-Ahsa and Dammam on Sunday, before saying the danger had passed.
A strike at the business core
KAFD is Riyadh's business heart. It is home to the Saudi Exchange, PIF's tower and the regional headquarters that global companies have been asked to set up in the capital.
A hit there takes the conflict into the offices of the very firms the kingdom is trying to attract.
A city easing back
Riyadh's offices and schools have been working around the attacks for weeks. Kingdom Centre told its office tenants last month to work from home "until further notice," according to a building management email reported by AFP.
The bigger picture
Sunday's attack is the latest in a run of strikes on the kingdom since early October. An attack on Riyadh's King Khalid International Airport on Oct. 10 killed 13 people and wounded more than 300, according to Saudi authorities. Aramco's headquarters was badly damaged in a separate attack last month.
At sea, tanker attacks returned last week and put the Red Sea port of Yanbu on alert.
