Saudi Arabia says Yemen rebels target its energy facilities

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) — Yemen’s Houthi rebels unleashed a barrage of drone and missile strikes on Saudi Arabia early Sunday that targeted a liquified natural gas plant, water desalination plant, oil facility and power station, Saudi state-run media reported.

The attacks did not cause casualties, the Saudi-led military coalition fighting in Yemen said, but damaged civilian vehicles and homes in the area. The salvo marked the latest escalation in Houthi cross-border attacks on Saudi Arabia as peace talks remain stalled and the conflict that has laid waste to much of Yemen since 2015 rages on.

The attacks also came as Saudi Arabia's state-backed oil giant Aramco announced that its profits rose 124% in 2021 to $110 billion, a big jump amid renewed anxieties about global supply shortages, soaring oil prices and a recovery in fuel demand from the coronavirus pandemic.

Aramco, also known as the Saudi Arabian Oil Co., released its earnings report on the heels of weeks of intense volatility in energy markets triggered by Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. Punitive sanctions on Russia, among the world’s largest exporters of crude and petroleum products, have unleashed turmoil in an already-tight energy market.

Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates have so far resisted Western appeals to increase oil production to offset the loss of Russian oil as gasoline prices skyrocket.

The international oil benchmark Brent crude hovered over $107 on Sunday after nearly touching a peak of $140 earlier this month.

Yehia Sarie, a spokesman for Yemen’s Iran-backed Houthi rebels said the group had launched “a wide and large military operation into the depth of Saudi Arabia."

The military coalition said it thwarted an attack on a liquified gas plant at a petrochemicals complex in the...