Shafaq News- Riyadh/ Muscat/ Manama
Saudi Arabia suspended operations at its largest oil refinery on Monday after a drone strike, as escalating US–Israeli military action against Iran and Tehran’s retaliation disrupted energy infrastructure and shipping routes across the Middle East.
According to Reuters, state oil giant Saudi Aramco halted output at its 550,000-barrels-per-day Ras Tanura refinery as a precautionary measure. The facility is part of a major energy complex on the Gulf coast that also serves as a critical crude export terminal for the Kingdom.
The regional fallout has already extended to Iraq’s Kurdistan Region, where companies including DNO, Gulf Keystone Petroleum, Dana Gas and HKN Energy stopped production at several oil fields as a safety measure.
Meanwhile, the UK Maritime Trade Operations (UKMTO) center said a vessel in the Port of Bahrain was struck by two unidentified projectiles, causing a fire that was later extinguished. The crew evacuated safely, and authorities launched an investigation.
Off the coast of Oman, the Omani Maritime Security Centre noted that the Marshall Islands-flagged tanker MKD VYOM was attacked by an unmanned boat 52 nautical miles off Muscat. One Indian crew member was killed after a fire and explosion in the engine room. The remaining 21 crew members —16 Indians, four Bangladeshis and one Ukrainian— were evacuated by the Panama-flagged vessel MV Sand.
On the security front, Saudi Arabia’s Ministry of Defense announced it intercepted and destroyed five drones near Prince Sultan Air Base. In northern Israel, the Home Front Command reported renewed air-raid sirens in the Haifa Bay, Galilee, northern Jordan Valley and Tiberias areas. Israeli emergency services confirmed two people were wounded in Beersheba by falling Iranian missile fragments.Medical teams are also treating and evacuating 15 people with glass shrapnel injuries to Soroka Hospital.
The US military, separately, confirmed that an earlier F-15 fighter jet crash near the Kuwaiti border resulted from what it called friendly fire. “During active combat—that included attacks from Iranian aircraft, ballistic missiles, and drones — the U.S. Air Force fighter jets were mistakenly shot down by Kuwaiti air defenses,” US Central Command reported.
The developments came on the third day of the US–Israeli military operation against Iran, which killed Iran’s Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei. The deadliest reported incident occurred in Minab, southeastern Iran, where a strike on a girls’ elementary school killed at least 148 people and injured 95. Tehran responded with missile and drone strikes on Israel and US military bases in Bahrain, Iraq, Jordan, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, and the United Arab Emirates.