The United States said new evidence and analysis of weapons debris recovered from an attack on Saudi oil facilities on Sept. 14 “indicates the strike likely came from the north, reinforcing its earlier assessment that Iran was behind the offensive,” Reuters reports in an exclusive.
The attacks on September 14th were significant. Two of Saudi Arabia’s most important oil facilities were brazenly attacked and set ablaze, causing a disruption of half of Saudi Arabia’s total daily oil production and 5% of the world’s crude supply.
The Iran-backed Houthis in Yemen said that the attacks were drone strikes they carried out, and claimed responsibility for them. The Houthis also said they would strike again.
But in an interim report of a U.S. investigation – “seen by Reuters ahead of a presentation on Thursday to the United Nations Security Council – Washington assessed that before hitting its targets, one of the drones traversed a location approximately 200 km (124 miles) to the northwest of the attack site,” according to Reuters.
“This, in combination with the assessed 900 kilometer maximum range of the Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV), indicates with high likelihood that the attack originated north of Abqaiq,” the interim report said, referring to the location of one of the Saudi oil facilities that were hit.
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