Saudi Arabia shuts East-West pipeline after drone attacks it says came from Iraq

2026-09-11 · military · major

Saudi Arabia said on Friday 11 September that it had shut the East-West crude pipeline to the Red Sea as a precaution after drones struck it in the Riyadh and Medina regions on Thursday 10 September, causing fires, damage and some injuries. The foreign ministry said the drones were launched from Iraq and that the kingdom would not retaliate for now at the request of Iraq's prime minister; Iraq said the attack came from Maysan province and dismissed the local operations commander. The pipeline, with a stated capacity of 7 million barrels a day, had been carrying crude to Yanbu to bypass the Strait of Hormuz.

Attribution caveat: 2 other major event(s) sit inside this one's ±7-day window (2026-09-08 Houthi strikes on southern Saudi cities set oil sites ablaze; Riyadh says 73 hurt; 2026-09-11 Houthis seize Perim island, gaining positions on both Bab el-Mandeb channels), so the reaction is not cleanly separable.

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