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Indian national among injured as drone debris kills two near Saudi oilfield; US orders embassy staff to leave
An Indian and a Pakistani were injured and two foreign nationals killed after intercepted drone debris sparked a fire near Saudi Arabia’s Shaybah oilfield.
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Saudi Arabia said that one Indian national was among the injured after debris from an intercepted drone fell near an oilfield in the country's southeastern region Wednesday. The incident resulted in the deaths of a Nepali national and a Filipino national, and injury to a Pakistani national.
Saudi Arabia's Ministry of Defence said in a press release Wednesday, October 21, that the falling debris from an intercepted drone fell on a contractor's vehicle at the Shaybah oil field, located just 10 km south of the border to Abu Dhabi, and started a fire. The incident comes amid a slew of drone attacks from the Houthis as the Houthis and the Saudi coalition continue to fight in Yemen, after their UN-administered four-year truce fell through in July this year.
"An official source at the Ministry of Energy stated that Saudi air defences intercepted a drone attempting to target a processing facility at Saudi Aramco’s Shaybah oil field in the Eastern Province on Wednesday morning," the press release stated.
"The incident resulted in a fire in a vehicle belonging to a contractor operating at the oil field, outside the facility’s perimeter, with no impact on operations. The source explained that the relevant authorities responded to the incident and took the necessary measures.
"The attempted attack resulted in the deaths of two individuals, a Filipino and a Nepali, and injuries to two others, a Pakistani and an Indian, due to falling debris following the interception," it added. “The source extended sincere condolences and sympathy to the families of the deceased and wished the injured a speedy recovery.”
The United States has asked its embassy staff and their families in Saudi Arabia to leave the country, the Associated Press reported. A similar order was also reportedly issued for the United Arab Emirates, Jordan, Qatar and Bahrain. "All American staff and their families have been ordered to depart from the US embassy in Saudi Arabia," the source told AP.
This is not the first time Aramco infrastructure has been targeted amid the conflict between the Saudi coalition and the Houthis. A limited fire broke out on October 7 at an administrative building managed by Aramco in the country's Eastern Province after it was targeted in an attack.
With inputs from AP.
