A witness reported seeing a large cloud of smoke and flames rising near a facility belonging to Saudi Aramco in the Saudi capital Riyadh on Saturday, as images and videos circulated online claiming to show a fire in the area.
Arab and international media outlets also circulated footage and satellite images that they said showed a large fire in Riyadh. However, Saudi authorities had not issued an official statement confirming the incident or providing details about its circumstances.
Aramco also had not commented on the reports, and no party had claimed responsibility for the reported fire.
Following the circulation of the reports, Hizam Al-Asad, a member of the political office of Yemen’s Ansar Allah movement and its Shura Council, posted a comment on X saying: “A capital for a capital. Whoever’s capital is built on oil should not set fire to the capitals of others.”
The reports emerged amid escalating confrontations between Saudi Arabia and the Houthi movement in Yemen. The Houthis announced last week that they had targeted Aramco facilities in Yanbu with missiles and drones.
Saudi Arabia, in turn, announced that it had intercepted six ballistic missiles launched toward Taif and Yanbu, without reporting any damage to Aramco facilities.
