OIL CRISIS
IRAN backed militants have claimed responsibility for a drone attack on the world's biggest oil plant that could cut the world's supply in half.
Immense fires were seen engulfing two major Saudi Arabian oil plants, one in Abqaiq, Bugayg, and its second largest oilfield in Khurais, at around 4am this morning.
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The Khurais oilfield produces around one per cent of the world's oil and Abqaiq is the largest facility and can produce seven per cent of the global supply.
A staggering 5million barrels per day of crude production was destroyed, according to sources.
This amounts to at least half of the kingdom's 9.65million daily output which is shipped around the world.
The fires began after the sites were "targeted by drones," the Interior Ministry said in a statement carried by the state-run Saudi Press Agency.
It said an investigation was underway.
Military spokesperson Yahia Sarie has now threatened further attacks unless Saudi Arabia ends the bitter war.
He said: "The only option for the Saudi government is to stop attacking us."
Both fires are now understood to be under control, the interior ministry told the official Saudi Press Agency.
TENSIONS MOUNTING
The Abqaiq oil processing facility is described as the "largest in the world" and uses vital shipping lanes on the Persian Gulf and the Red Sea.
It was targeted by Al-Qaida suicide bombers in February 2006, who failed to blow it up.
War erupted in 2015 with the Iran-aligned Houthi rebel movement battling against the Yemeni government and a Saudi-led coalition.
Timeline of tensions in the Middle East
- May 5: USS Abraham Lincoln carrier strike group and a bomber task force is deployed in Middle East in response to 'a number of troubling and escalatory indications and warnings' by Iran.
- May 8: Iran vows to enrich its uranium stockpile if world powers fail to negotiate new terms for its nuclear deal. The US responds by imposing sanctions on Iran's metals industry.
- May 10: The US says it will move a Patriot missile battery into the Middle East to counter threats from Iran.
- May 24: President Trump says the US will bolster its military presence in the Middle East with an additional 1,500 troops.
- May 12: The UAE says four commercial ships off its eastern coast "were subjected to sabotage operations," just hours after Iranian and Lebanese media outlets air false reports of explosions at a nearby Emirati port.
- June 13: Two oil tankers are attacked in the Gulf of Oman - Washington blames Iran while Tehran denies involvement
- June 18: US sends more than 1,000 additional troops to Middle East citing Iran's 'hostile behaviour'
- June 20: Iran shoots down American 'spy' drone insisting the aircraft had flown over its airspace - a claim the US denied
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The violence has pushed Yemen to the brink of famine and killed more than 90,000 people since 2015, according to the US-based Armed Conflict Location & Event Data Project.
Now the coalition launches air strikes almost every day, while the Houthis often fire missiles into Saudi Arabia.
Tensions have also been rising in the region because of the rivalry between Saudi Arabia and Iran.
Saudi Arabia and the US both blamed Iran for attacks in the Gulf on two oil tankers in June and July.
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And in May, four tankers - two Saudi-flagged - were damaged by explosions within the UAE's territorial waters in the Gulf of Oman.
The shipping lane rivalry was exacerbated even further in June when Iran shot down a US surveillance drone over the Strait of Hormuz.
This led to the Pentagon announcing the deployment of US troops to Saudi Arabia.
Saudi Arabia and the civil war in Yemen
The desert kingdom has been embroiled in neighbouring Yemen's civil war since 2015
The fighting can be traced back to the handover of power from long-time autocratic President Ali Abdullah Saleh to his deputy and current president Abdrabbuh Mansour Hadi in November 2011.
Salah was forced to stand down in a bid to return stability to the country following the Arab Spring, a series of uprisings across the Middle East and North Africa.
In January 2015, Houthi rebels - Shiite Muslims backed by Iran - seized control of the much of the country including the capital Sana'a.
Hadi was put under house arrest but managed to escape to safety in Saudi Arabia before returning to recaptured Aden. His government is still internationally recognised.
Saudi Arabia and the UAE intervened in 2015 to support the Yemeni government against Houthi rebels, in a war that has left around 10,000 people dead.
The war has been seen as a proxy for the region power struggle between Sunni Saudi Arabia and Shia Iran.
The country has been fiercely criticised for launching air strikes which have killed or maimed thousands of civilians.
Some analysts have said as many as 50,000 people have been killed directly by the violence, plus another 50,000 from disease and famine.
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