U.S., Saudi Military Forces Failed to Detect Attack on Oil Facilities

Drones and missiles—which officials increasingly believe were launched from Iran—appeared to have flown low to the ground so that they weren’t detected by radar or defense systems

Fears of a military conflict between the U.S. and Iran are high following an attack on a critical Saudi oil facility Saturday. WSJ’s Gerald F. Seib highlights three reasons the U.S. is less likely than it once was to defend Saudi Arabia if that happens. Photo: Associated Press
By
Nancy A. Youssef,
Gordon Lubold,
Summer Said and
Dion Nissenbaum

WASHINGTON—U.S. and Saudi military forces and their elaborate air-defense systems failed to detect the launch of airstrikes aimed at Saudi Arabian oil facilities, allowing dozens of drones and missiles to hit their targets, U.S. officials said.

Saudi and U.S. focus had been largely on the kingdom’s southern border with Yemen, where Riyadh has been fighting Iranian-backed Houthi rebels in Yemen’s civil war, the officials said. The attacks, however, originated from Iranian territory in the northern Persian Gulf, people familiar...