Saudi Arabia: Drone attacks knocked out half its oil supply

Dubai: Yemen's Houthi rebels launched drone attacks on the world's largest oil processing facility in Saudi Arabia and a major oil field Saturday, sparking huge fires and halting about half of the supplies from the world's largest exporter of oil.

The attacks were the latest of many drone assaults on the kingdom's oil infrastructure in recent weeks, but easily the most damaging.

They raise concerns about the global oil supply and likely will further increase tensions across the Persian Gulf amid an escalating crisis between the U.S. and Iran over its unravelling nuclear deal with world powers. The attacks resulted in "the temporary suspension of production operations" at the Abqaiq oil processing facility and the Khurais oil field, Energy Minister Prince Abdulaziz bin Salman said in a statement carried by the state-run Saudi Press Agency.