Aramco Tower in Riyadh damaged as Houthi missiles target Saudi capital

Aramco Tower in Riyadh's King Abdullah Financial District has been damaged in a Houthi attack on the city, AFP reported Sunday, citing three witnesses. "Aramco tower in KAFD has been targeted, that's the sure thing," one witness told the agency. Details on the extent of the damage were not immediately available.

The Saudi-led Coalition to Support Legitimacy in Yemen said Sunday it intercepted and destroyed two cruise missiles over the Riyadh region, plus two ballistic missiles fired by the Houthis toward the capital. Earlier in the day, Saudi Civil Defense sounded an alarm across Riyadh amid reports of a Houthi drone strike on the city. No injuries have been reported.

The Houthis had already claimed a bigger swing a day earlier, saying they targeted Saudi oil infrastructure including an Aramco facility in Abqaiq and the Ras Tanura oil refinery. Overnight, alarms briefly rang out in Buqayq and Al Ahsa governorates and in Dammam as drone and missile exchanges between Saudi forces and the rebels continued.

The attack lands squarely on Saudi Aramco's home turf. KAFD is the kingdom's flagship financial district in the capital, and Aramco Tower is one of its most recognizable addresses — making a strike there a symbolic hit as much as a physical one.

This is the latest beat in a running exchange of fire. Earlier Sunday, the coalition said it intercepted a Houthi ballistic missile aimed at Saudi Arabia's Eastern Region, according to spokesperson Turki al-Maliki, who gave no further details. Separately, the UAE's National Guard said it rescued 22 crew members from a cargo ship fire in the Gulf of Oman.

What comes next is the question now hanging over Riyadh: whether the strikes escalate further, and how hard the coalition responds. For now, the capital is picking through the damage while the missiles keep coming.