Did 9/14 attacks on Saudi oil facilities come from inside Saudi Arabia?

Currently, there are 200 comments in response to Bernhard's analysis at Moon of Alabama titled, Damage At Saudi Oil Plant Points To Well Targeted Swarm Attack and of course everyone is guessing about how the attacks were done and where they were launched from, but I found the following four comments interesting. See the MoA post for aerial footage of the exact sites that were attacked.

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The suggestion that this was launched from inside the Saudi desert is a reason to think the Houthis did this. They are among the people most able to get into that desert, since it is on their border, and to cross those deserts, since they've been doing that for centuries. Few others can operate so well out in that desert.

Posted by: Mark Thomason | Sep 16 2019 10:37 utc | 7

In spite of a lot of details given, this news is fully inconsistent with other satellite images. Other reports of the incident show smoke rising from a different location more than 2 km southeast from the described separator tanks. At least one side is fabricating wrong facts. Judge for yourself, e.g.:

https://a57.foxnews.com/static.foxnews.com/foxnews.com/content/uploads/2019/09/640/320/saudi-oil-attack.jpg?ve=1&tl=1

Posted by: MWL | Sep 16 2019 11:48 utc | 19

Nowhere near an expert, but taking a look on Google Maps, the orientation of the holes on the tanks looks like an attack from the wrong side (ie it looks more likely it came from inside Saudi Arabia). A drone attack from the Iraq or Bahrain side would have travelled further and hit on the other side.

Given the level of precision, I wonder if the attack was launched much more locally - some short distance home-made drone that would fly over the fence with a maximum distance of about a mile from waste land outside the plant. The specific targeting on focused targets instead of indiscriminate scattered destruction would also suggest someone familiar with the plant, and a shorter distance attack flown by hand from nearby would require much less sophisticated equipment.

The photos of the plumes of smoke are also confusing. One is from somewhere outside the plant. And a second at the Haradh gas plant that is appearing in the media, is some 140 miles away from Abqaiq.

The plant was attacked previously by Saudi Al Qaeda affiliates in 2006 so it is a target for internal Saudi terrorists as well as external countries.

Posted by: Tess Ting | Sep 16 2019 11:56 utc | 22

Someone is faking facts. The provided Government / DigitalGlobe imagery is inconsistent with earlier satellite imagery of the smoke rising from a site about 2 km southeast of the alleged attack. The smoke did NOT rise from the shown separator facilities. ...

Posted by: MWL | Sep 16 2019 12:12 utc | 25

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