The strike on Saudi Arabia's oil fields appears to be an example of state-sponsored terrorism. State-sponsored terrorism involves terrorist acts on a state or government by a state or government.
That is the official view of the United States and the United Kingdom, both of which believe that Iran launched the missiles. US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo accused Iran of perpetrating an "act of war" after the
strikes on Saudi oil facilities, saying the attack had the "fingerprints of the Ayatollah."
However, some doubt remains as to who actually is responsible. Yemen's Iranian-backed Houthi rebels have claimed responsibility and Iranian President Hassan Rouhani insists the attack came from Yemeni forces against whom a Saudi-led coalition has been fighting since March 2015.
However, as
Pompeo told reporters, the claim that Houthi rebels launched the attack "doesn't change the fingerprints of the Ayatollah as having put at risk the global energy supply."
Saudi Aramco President Amin Nasser
said the synchronized attacks were timed to create "maximum damage" to the Saudi
oil processing facilities at
Abqaiq and
Khurais in eastern
Saudi Arabia.
Eighteen drones and seven cruise missiles bombarded the facilities in an assault described as a “Pearl Harbor-type" attack.
The attack knocked out an estimated 5.7 million barrels of daily oil production, slightly over five percent of the global daily crude production.
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