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Iran launched nearly a dozen cruise missiles and over 20 drones from its territory in the attack on a key Saudi oil facility Saturday, a senior Trump administration official told ABC News Sunday.
It is an extraordinary charge to make, that Iran used missiles and drones to attack its neighbor and rival Saudi Arabia, as the region teeters on the edge of high tensions.
President Donald Trump warned the U.S. was "locked and loaded" to respond to the attack on Sunday, waiting for verification of who was responsible and for word from Saudi Arabia on how to proceed.
(MORE: Pompeo blames Iran for major attack on Saudi oil facility amid high regional tensions)
The Trump administration, in particular Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, has blamed Iran for the attack since Saturday, but so far, there's been no public accusation that Iran launched missiles.
The Houthi rebels in neighboring Yemen claimed responsibility for the assault, which hit one of the world's largest oil processing facilities, hundreds of miles from the Yemen-Saudi border, and sharply impacted global oil supplies.
But a senior U.S. official told ABC News Saturday that was false: "It was Iran. The Houthis are claiming credit for something they did not do."
Pompeo tweeted that there was "no evidence the attacks came from Yemen."
The attack on the Saudi state-owned oil company Aramco also included more than 20 drones, the official said.
Iran has denied responsibility for the attack, accusing Pompeo of "max deceit," as the country's Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif tweeted Saturday.
In a Sunday evening tweet, Trump did not share the definitive accusation against Iran, instead saying the U.S. had "reason to believe that we know the culprit ... but are waiting to hear from the Kingdom [of Saudi Arabia] as to who they believe was the cause of this attack."
https://abcnews.go.com/Politics/iran...ry?id=65632653
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