Saudi Aramco tells staff to evacuate Dhahran as clashes with Yemen's Houthis continue

Oct 22 (Reuters) - Saudi state oil company Aramco has told staff to evacuate its headquarters in Dhahran on the Gulf, six people with knowledge of the matter told Reuters on Thursday, as fighting between the world's largest crude exporter and Yemen's Iran-aligned Houthis intensifies.

Clashes between the Houthis and a Saudi-led coalition that backs Yemen's internationally recognised government have raged since the group pushed towards Bab el-Mandeb, a shipping ​chokepoint at the Red Sea's mouth.

The instruction to staff to evacuate the building and work remotely follows a wave of Houthi attacks on the kingdom, targeting the company and Saudi airports. The company did not immediately respond to a request for comment on what would be the first evacuation since the start of the Iran war.

It was unclear what the reason for the evacuation was.

The kingdom's benchmark index .TASI dropped 2.5% on Thursday following the Aramco news, according to LSEG data. Oil prices rose to their highest since May on Thursday on concern over an escalation of the Middle East conflict and its impact on crude oil supplies from the world's key exporting region.

HOUTHIS SAY THEY TARGETED ARAMCO IN YANBU

Houthi military spokesperson Yahya Saree said in a televised speech that the group had launched attacks on Aramco facilities in the Red Sea city of Yanbu and the Saudi defense ministry in the capital Riyadh. Saudi authorities did not confirm the attack.

The Saudi-led coalition said on Thursday it had intercepted drones over Riyadh and Islam's holy city of Medina, which is near Yanbu.

The renewed fighting between Saudi Arabia and Houthi militias in recent weeks ended a 2022 UN-brokered truce, which had largely halted cross-border attacks, and opened another front ​in the US-Israeli ⁠war on Iran.

The Houthis caused extensive damage to Aramco's headquarters earlier this month when they struck the building, with fire spreading across several floors.

Saudi Arabia has responded to Houthi attacks with a wave of strikes on missile launcher sites, vowing to protect the kingdom, and says it has intercepted many ballistic missiles fired by the group.

Saree said that Saudi attacks on Yemen have killed and wounded 562 people since mid July, when the Houthis imposed a naval blockade on the kingdom which then drew a warning from the Saudi-led coalition that it ​would respond "firmly".

Separately, he said earlier on Thursday that the group is rescuing a boat carrying 14 Indians that was attacked off Jabal Zuqar island near the strait, one of the territories the group seized in an advance in September.

Saree blamed the attack on Saudi Arabia. Saudi authorities did not respond to a Reuters request for comment.

HOUTHI AIRPORT ATTACKS

A Houthi attack on King Fahd International Airport in Saudi Arabia's eastern oil hub of Dammam near Dhahran on Wednesday evening killed two people, a Saudi citizen and an Indian national, and wounded eight others.

Saudi Arabia's General Authority of Civil Aviation said on Thursday that operations at the airport had resumed and air traffic had returned to normal.

The ​Houthis had warned airlines this month against using Saudi airspace ⁠as they have repeatedly targeted Saudi airports, including Riyadh's international airport and the southern airport of Abha.

Brent crude futures LCOc1 climbed $3.06, or 2.81%, to $111.88 a barrel by 1104 GMT on Thursday. They hit $112.55 a barrel earlier in the session, the highest since May 18.

(Reporting by Timour Azhari, Marwa Rashad, Olesya Astakhova, Dmitry Zhdannikov, Maha El Dahan, Nayera Abdallah, Tala Ramadan, Eman Abouhassira, Yomna Ehab, and Ahmed Tolba; Writing by Nayera AbdallahEditing by Peter Graff, Ros Russell, Philippa Fletcher)