Yemen rebels launch wide strikes on Saudi sites; no one hurt

Dubai: Yemen's Houthi rebels unleashed a barrage of drone and missile strikes on Saudi Arabia that targeted key facilities including natural gas and desalination plants early Sunday, Saudi state-run media reported, temporarily cutting oil production at one site.

The pre-dawn salvo marked the latest escalation in the rebels' attacks on the kingdom as the war in Yemen rages into its eighth year and peace talks stall.

The attacks did not cause casualties, the Saudi-led military coalition fighting in Yemen said, but damaged nearby civilian vehicles and homes.

Hours after oil giant Aramco's CEO told reporters the attacks had no impact on oil supplies, the energy ministry acknowledged that a drone strike targeting the Yanbu Aramco Sinopec Refining Company caused a temporary reduction in the refinery's production."

The disruption, coming as oil prices spike in an already-tight energy market, will be compensated for from the inventory," the ministry said in a statement, without elaborating.

The assaults came as Saudi Arabia's state-backed Aramco, the world's largest oil company, announced its profits surged 124% in 2021 to 110 billion, a jump fuelled by renewed anxieties about global supply shortages and soaring

oil prices.