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		</div><p>Yemen’s Houthi rebels have attacked an oil depot in the Saudi city of Jiddah in an assault that threatened to disrupt Sunday’s Formula One grand prix.</p>
<p>The attack targeted the same fuel depot that the Houthis have attacked in recent days – the North Jiddah Bulk Plant which sits just south east of the city’s international airport, a crucial hub for Muslim pilgrims heading to Mecca.</p>
<p>Saudi state TV acknowledged a “hostile operation” targeting the depot, without elaborating.</p>
<p>The attacks came as Saudi Arabia leads a coalition battling the Iran-backed Houthis, who seized Yemen’s capital of Sanaa in September 2014.</p>
<p>The kingdom, which entered the war in Yemen in 2015, has been internationally criticised for its air strikes that have killed scores of civilians — something the Houthis point to as they launch drones, missiles and mortars into the kingdom.</p>
<p>As the flames at the depot rose into the sky, the tops of the tanks of the bulk plant were clearly visible seven miles away.</p>
<p>The second-ever Saudi Arabian Grand Prix in Jiddah is taking place on Sunday though concerns had been raised by some over the recent attacks targeting the kingdom.</p>
<p>The al-Masirah satellite news channel run by Yemen’s Houthi rebels later claimed they had attacked an Aramco facility in Jiddah, along with other targets in Riyadh and elsewhere.</p>
<p>Meanwhile, Saudi state TV also acknowledged attacks in the town of Dhahran targeting water tanks that damaged vehicles and homes. Another attack targeted an electrical substation in an area of south-western Saudi Arabia near the Yemeni border, state TV said.</p>
<p>The North Jiddah Bulk Plant stores diesel, gasoline and jet fuel for use in Jiddah, the kingdom’s second-largest city. It accounts for over a quarter of all of Saudi Arabia’s supplies and also provides fuel crucial to running a regional desalination plant.</p>
<p>The Houthis have twice targeted the North Jiddah plant with cruise missiles. One attack came in November 2020. The last came on Sunday as part of a wider barrage by the Houthis.</p>
<p>At the time of the 2020 attack, the targeted tank, which has a capacity of 500,000 barrels, held diesel fuel, according to a recent report by a UN panel of experts examining Yemen’s war. Repairing it after the last attack cost Aramco some 1.5 million dollars.</p>
<p>The U.N. experts described the facility as a “civilian target” which the Houthis should have avoided after the 2020 attack.</p>
<p>“While the facility also supplies the Saudi military with petroleum products, it is mostly supplying civilian customers,” the panel said. “If the plant had been out of service of a significant period, the impact on the kingdom’s economy as well as on the welfare of the residents of the Western region would likely have been significant.”</p>
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