An administrative building belonging to Saudi Aramco was damaged by falling debris in Riyadh on Sunday after an attempted missile attack, the kingdom’s Energy Ministry said, with no injuries or deaths reported.
A Reuters witness saw blown-out windows across several floors of the Aramco Tower, one of the tallest buildings in the King Abdullah Financial District. Multiple loud booms were heard across the capital earlier in the morning, shortly after Saudi Civil Defense issued an early-warning alert of a potential threat in the region. Authorities later announced that the danger had passed.
The Saudi-led coalition said it had intercepted and destroyed two ballistic missiles fired by Yemen’s Iran-aligned Houthis towards Riyadh. It later said it had also intercepted two cruise missiles over Riyadh and the kingdom’s southern region. Aramco was not immediately available for comment, and there was no immediate statement from the Houthis.
The Houthis have stepped up missile and drone attacks on Saudi airports, ports and oil facilities since fighting resumed in July, opening another front in the wider Middle East war reignited after the American and Israeli attacks on Iran in February. Saudi Arabia has in turn carried out airstrikes against Houthi targets in Yemen.
The latest escalation came a day after the Houthi-run health ministry said Saudi airstrikes killed at least 33 people near the Yemeni capital, Sanaa. Saudi authorities said they were investigating the claim. The site’s 7 November report of that strike, based on earlier figures, put the death toll at 27.
Saudi Civil Defense also issued and later lifted warnings on Sunday in several areas of the oil-rich Eastern Province, including Dhahran, home to Aramco’s headquarters. The province holds most of the kingdom’s oil and gas reserves, and Aramco’s headquarters suffered extensive damage in an attack in October. An attack on Riyadh’s King Khalid International Airport on 10 October killed 13 people and wounded more than 300, according to Saudi authorities.
The renewed hostilities have shattered a 2022 UN-brokered truce that had largely halted fighting between the two sides. Saudi Arabia led a coalition of Arab states into Yemen in 2015 to restore the internationally recognised government after the Houthis seized the capital.
Note: the attribution of the missiles to the Houthis rests on the Saudi-led coalition’s statement; the Houthis had not commented at the time of publication, and the ministry did not say whether the debris that damaged the Aramco building came from a specific intercepted missile.
Sources: Reuters, “Saudi Aramco building in Riyadh damaged by falling debris after attempted attack, ministry says”, 8 November 2026 (https://duke.fm/2026/11/07/loud-booms-heard-in-saudi-capital-riyadh-after-early-warning-alert-issued/); The Hindu BusinessLine, “Saudi Arabia intercepts missiles as Aramco building in Riyadh damaged”, 8 November 2026 (https://www.thehindubusinessline.com/news/world/saudi-arabia-intercepts-missiles-as-aramco-building-in-riyadh-damaged-other-mideast-news/article71680852.ece).
