Saudi Arabia says weapons debris shows Iran behind oil attacks

It said 18 drones and seven cruise missiles were fired from a direction that ruled out Yemen as a source.

Yemen's Iran-backed Houthi rebels had said they were behind the attacks.

Iran has denied any involvement and warned it would retaliate against any military response.

The Saudi defence ministry briefing said the wreckage showed the attacks were launched from the north and were “unquestionably sponsored by Iran”.

However, spokesman Col Turki al-Malki said the Saudis were still "working to know exactly the launch point".

Col Malki showed off what was said to be a delta wing of an Iranian UAV (unmanned aerial vehicle) along with other weapons debris.

"Data recovered from the computers [on the UAV] shows it's Iranian," he said.

He said that 18 UAVs had been fired at the Abqaiq oil facility and seven cruise missiles had been launched at both targets. Four cruise missiles struck the Khurais oilfield and the other three fell short of Abqaiq.

Col Malki said the missiles that struck all hit from a northerly direction. He showed video of one UAV hitting Abqaiq, along with maps and photographs of the damage.

He said of the Khurais attack that the "precision impact of the cruise missiles indicate advanced capability beyond the Iran proxy's capacity".

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