(MENAFN- Gulf Times) A fire triggered by shelling at an oil refinery in Yemen's restive port city of Aden risked getting out of control yesterday as firefighters struggled to extinguish the blaze.
"The oil terminal has been in flames since Saturday. The firefighters have not managed to put out the blaze because there is a severe shortage in the substances needed to extinguish it," an official at the Aden refinery said.
"There are fears that the fire will spread to other fuel tanks in the area," the official said, speaking on condition of anonymity.
The fire started on Saturday when a shell allegedly fired by the Iran-backed Houthi rebels hit a fuel tank at the oil facility, which is part of the Red Sea city's port.
There was no comment from the Houthis.
Aden, Yemen's second biggest city, has been at the centre of a battle between the Houthis and local fighters loyal to President Abd-Rabbu Mansour Hadi.
A Saudi-led air campaign has repeatedly struck the mostly Shia rebels in Aden.
The Saudi interior ministry said a Saudi soldier was killed in a rocket attack on the kingdom's border with Yemen.
The rocket fire in the southern city of Jazan killed Faisal Mohamed Belqasem Maqaadi and wounded another soldier, an interior ministry spokesman said in a statement carried by the official SPA news agency late Saturday.
It did not specify the source of the fire but cross-border shelling by Yemeni rebels has become common since Riyadh launched the air campaign in late March.
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