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CAIRO (AP) — The Iranian-backed Houthi rebel group in Yemen launched a wave of attacks on Saudi Arabia on Tuesday, wounding more than 70 people and igniting fires at oil facilities and utilities in the kingdom, authorities said.
The attack was a major escalation in renewed fighting between an important U.S. ally and the Iranian proxy group. It also threatened to further destabilize a region rocked by nearly three years of wars and deliver a new blow to the global economy.
Weeks of clashes have added pressure to limited global oil supplies as the Houthis target a shipping route Saudi Arabia has used to transport oil to world markets while the Strait of Hormuz is throttled due to the U.S.-Iran war. Tuesday’s attacks hit Saudi oil facilities connected to an alternative route, the Bab el-Mandeb, a strategic waterway off the southern tip of the Arabian Peninsula that connects the Red Sea to the Gulf of Aden.
The attacks early Tuesday came hours after the rebels blamed Saudi Arabia for an airstrike that hit a prison in Yemen’s northern province of Jawf. At least seven people, including a child, were killed and seven others were wounded.
The rebels hit “civilian and economic facilities” in the Saudi cities of Abha, Jazan, Najran and Khamis Mushait, said Maj. Gen. Turki al-Malki, a spokesperson for the Saudi-led coalition fighting in Yemen.
Seventy-three people were wounded, including women and children, he said, calling the attacks a “serious escalation” and vowing retaliation.
The attacks ignited fires at several oil facilities and utilities in Saudi Arabia’s southern region, the kingdom’s Energy Ministry said, adding that operations at the oil facilities and utilities were temporarily suspended.
The southern region houses major oil facilities, including a 400,000-barrel-per-day oil refinery in Jazan, which is one of Saudi Arabia’s largest. The Houthis previously attacked the Abha airport.
The ministry said firefighters were battling the fires Tuesday morning.
In a prerecorded video statement, Brig. Gen. Yahya Saree, the Houthis military spokesman, said they fired dozens of ballistic missiles and drones at oil and economic facilities, as well as an air base in southern Saudi Arabia.
He said they targeted Jazan City for Primary and Downstream Industries, a major industrial and logistics hub on Saudi Arabia’s southwestern Red Sea coast. The rebels also aimed at Aramco facilities in Najran and Abha, as well as King Khalid Air Base in Khamis Mushait.