An allied group in Iran attacked two oil pumping stations in Saudi Arabia with a drone and halted operations

Two oil pumping stations in central Saudi Arabia were attacked Tuesday by drones, after which the activities in the pipeline were suspended, announced Saudi Energy Minister Khalid Al Falih at the agency SPA.

The attack, claimed by the Houthi rebels in Yemen, happened a day after Riad reported sabotage on two of his freighters in the Persian Gulfin a context of escalating tensions between his ally the United States and his regional rival Iran.

The drones caused a fire that caused "limited damage" in one of the installations and was then controlled. However, operations in the oil pipeline linking east of Saudi Arabia to the port of Yanbu in the Red Sea has been temporarily suspended so that Saudi Aramco can better badess the situation.

The unmanned airplane operatedn between 06:00 and 06:30 local time (between 03:00 and 03:30 GMT) at the Dawadmi and Afif stations, in the Riyadh capital region, as reported by the official agency SPA.

While the Saudi authorities have denounced "the cowardly attack" threatens the security of the world's energy supply, and related to the alleged acts of sabotage reported the day before.

Al Falih also said that attacks "pThey say once again that it is important to confront terrorist entities, including Houthi militias in Yemen, and that they are backed by Iran."

Hours before the television network Al Mbadirah, precisely controlled by the Houthis, announced a "major military operation" against Saudi targets with the "use of seven drones" against the "vital installations" of the country. In addition, spokesman Mohammed Abdusalam said on his Twitter account that the attacks were perpetrated "response to the perpetrators who continue to commit crimes of genocide and impose a siege on the Yemeni people".

The Houthis rose up against the Yemeni government in 2015, quickly taking the capital Sanaa, and since then, the country, which shares a vast southern border with Saudi Arabia, has been living a bloody civil war that has generated an unprecedented humanitarian crisis in its population, the poorest in the Arab world.

The Houthi rebels are in turn Shiites and have received the support of the Iranian regime, which sends them weapons (between these ballistic missiles and drones) and funds to try weaken his rival Saudi Arabia. While the Yemeni government is supported by an Arab military coalition led by Riyadh, and who was accused many times to cause the death of the civilian population with their aerial bombardments.

The Persian Gulf region is convulsed by the recent escalation of tensions between the United States and Iran, which includes the deployment of warships and other military units by Washington and threats of closure of the Strait of Hormuz by Tehran.

Iran, mostly Shiite, has increased in recent years its influence in Iraq, Lebanon and Yemen, a country where members of this sect of Islam are also the most numerous, as well as in Syria, where Tehran has approached positions with Russia.

Like this has accentuated the conflict with Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates, mostly Sunni and historically allied with the United States.