Saudi Gazette report

JEDDAH — An official source at the Saudi Ministry of Energy said on Monday that a fire broke out at the Jeddah fuel tank in a distribution terminal of petroleum products caused by a terrorist attack. No injuries have been reported in the incident, the source added.

Meanwhile, the Arab Coalition called the attack a cowardly terrorist assault on global energy security and supply.

In a statement carried by the Saudi Press Agency on Monday, the coalition spokesman Brig. Gen. Turki Al-Maliki said that Iran-backed Houthi militia has been identified as the culprits of this cowardly terrorist assault, which did not target the Kingdom’s national assets, but the core of the global economy and its supply routes, as well as the security of global energy.

Al-Maliki said that the assault is a continuation of the terrorist actions that targeted oil facilities in (Abqaiq) and (Khurais), which were carried out by the Houthi militia using Iranian-made cruise missiles and armed drones. These attacks proved the direct involvement of the Iranian regime.

"Targeting civilians and civilian objects, including economic installations, in a deliberate, systematic manner is contrary to the customary international humanitarian law and amounts to war crimes," the spokesman pointed out.

"The Joint Forces Command of the Coalition undertakes all necessary operational procedures to safeguard civilians and civilian objects. All terrorist elements who participated in plotting and executing these hostile, terrorist operations against civilians and civilian objects will be held accountable in accordance with the customary international humanitarian law,” Al-Maliki warned.

Monday’s incident comes a week after Saudi Arabia said it had thwarted a terrorist attack launched by the Iran-backed Houthi militia on an oil products terminal near the border between the Kingdom and Yemen.

Earlier this month, Saudi forces intercepted and destroyed two unmanned boats carrying explosives to a floating offloading platform that belongs to an oil products terminal in Jazan.

The operation resulted in a limited fire on the platform’s floating hoses, which was soon put out and caused no injuries or fatalities.