Iran's Ayatollah Ali Khamenei had approved the attack on Saudi oil facilities on Saturday on the condition that Iran's involvement could be denied, a U.S. official told CBS News on Thursday September 19.
Meanwhile, the official said the United States has access to publicly unreleased satellite images that show Iran’s Revolutionary Guard (IRGC) officers preparing the attack at Ahvaz air base in southwestern Iran. The missiles flew over Kuwait some 400 miles to the targets.
This is the first time a source points to a place in Iran as the location where the strike originated. Iran has repeatedly denied it was responsible, insisting that Yemen’s Houthi rebels retaliated against Saudi air strikes.
The United States, Saudi Arabia and France have rejected the possibility of Houthis having launched the attack.
Previously, military experts speculated that the drones and missiles used in the attack could have been fired from somewhere in Iraq or a spot along the Iran-Iraq border north of the Persian Gulf.
The Saudis on Wednesday displayed the wreckage of what they said were Iranian drones and missiles found at the site of the attacks in eastern Saudi Arabia.
Map locating attacks at Saudi Arabian oil facilities Abqaiq and Khurais