Rights Group Says Saudi Arabian Border Guards Fired On And Killed Hundreds Of Ethiopian Migrants

This is a locator map for Yemen with its capital, Sanaa. (AP Photo)

BY JON GAMBRELL AND EVELYN MUSAMBI

DUBAI, UNITED ARAB EMIRATES (AP) — Border guards in Saudi Arabia have fired machine guns and launched mortars at Ethiopians trying to cross into the kingdom from Yemen, likely killing hundreds of the unarmed migrants in recent years, Human Rights Watch said in a report released Monday.

The rights group cited eyewitness reports of attacks by troops and images that showed dead bodies and burial sites on migrant routes, saying the death toll could even be “possibly thousands.”

The United Nations has already questioned Saudi Arabia about its troops opening fire on the migrants in an escalating pattern of attacks along its southern border with war-torn Yemen.

A Saudi government official, speaking on condition of anonymity as he was not authorized to speak publicly, called the Human Rights Watch report “unfounded and not based on reliable sources,” without offering evidence to support the assertion. Yemen’s Houthi rebels, who allegedly make tens of thousands of dollars a week smuggling migrants over the border, did not respond to requests for comment.

Some 750,000 Ethiopians live in Saudi Arabia, with as many as 450,000 likely having entered the kingdom without authorization, according to 2022 statistics from the International Organization for Migration. The two-year civil war in Ethiopia’s northern Tigray region displaced tens of thousands of people.

Saudi Arabia, struggling with youth unemployment, has been sending thousands back to Ethiopia in concert with Addis Abba.

Human Rights Watch said it spoke to 38 Ethiopian migrants and four relatives of people who attempted to cross the border between March 2022 and June 2023 who said they saw Saudi guards shoot at migrants or launch explosives at groups.

The report said the group also analyzed over 350 videos and photographs posted to social media or gathered from other sources filmed between May 12, 2021, and July 18, 2023. It also examined several hundred square kilometers (miles) of satellite imagery captured between February 2022 and July 2023.

“These show dead and wounded migrants on the trails, in camps and in medical facilities, how burial sites near the migrant camps grew in size, the expanding Saudi Arabian border security infrastructure, and the routes currently used by the migrants to attempt border crossings,” the report said.

An April 27 satellite photo from Planet Labs PBC analyzed by The Associated Press showed the same tent structures identified by the rights group near al-Raqw, Yemen, on the Saudi border. Two sets of fence lines could be seen just across the border into Saudi Arabia.

The site Human Rights Watch identified as the migrant camp at Al-Thabit also could be seen in satellite images, which corresponded to the group’s narrative that the camp largely had been dismantled in early April.

Both areas are in northwestern Yemen, the stronghold of the country’s Houthi rebels. The U.N. has said that the Houthi-controlled immigration office “collaborates with traffickers to systematically direct migrants” to Saudi Arabia, bringing in $50,000 a week.

The Houthis have held Yemen’s capital, Sanaa, since September 2014. A Saudi-led coalition has battled the Houthis since March 2015, without dislodging them from the capital. Fighting has largely halted between the Saudi-led forces and the Houthis as Riyadh seeks a way to end the war. However, throughout the war years, the Houthis claimed multiple incursions across the Saudi border in this mountainous region.

Migrants from Ethiopia have found themselves detained, abused and even killed in Saudi Arabia and Yemen during the war. But in recent months, there has been growing concern from the U.N. human rights body about Saudi forces attacking migrants coming in from Yemen.

An Oct. 3, 2022, letter to the kingdom from the U.N. said its investigators “received concerning allegations of cross-border artillery shelling and small arms fire allegedly by Saudi security forces causing the deaths of up to 430 and injuring 650 migrants.”

“If migrants are captured, they are reportedly oftentimes subjected to torture by being lined up and shot through the side of the leg to see how far the bullet will go or asked if they prefer to be shot in the hand or the leg,” the letter from the U.N. reads. “Survivors of such attacks reported having to ‘play dead’ for a period of time in order to escape.”

A letter sent by Saudi Arabia’s mission to the U.N. in Geneva in March said that it “categorically refutes” allegations that the kingdom carries out any “systematic” killings on the border. However, it also said the U.N. provided “limited information” so it could not “confirm or substantiate the allegations.”

Musambi reported from Nairobi, Kenya.

___ Follow AP’s global migration coverage at https://apnews.com/hub/migration

Loss For Messi And Argentina Among Biggest World Cup Upsets

 

Argentina's Lionel Messi, top right, leaves the pitch as Saudi Arabia's Mohammed Al-Burayk celebrates after his team's win in the World Cup group C soccer match between Argentina and Saudi Arabia at the Lusail Stadium in Lusail, Qatar, Tuesday, Nov. 22, 2022. (AP Photo/Luca Bruno)

BY GERALD IMRAY

DOHA, QATAR (AP) — The staggering loss for Lionel Messi and Argentina against Saudi Arabia at the World Cup is right up there with the biggest upsets in tournament history.

Messi, who had given Argentina the lead before the Saudis came back to win 2-1, is playing at what likely is his last World Cup and chasing the one major title that’s eluded him.

Messi and his highly-rated team, one of the favorites in Qatar, now have an unwanted place on a very different list after losing to a team ranked 48 places below them. Saudi Arabia had won only three games previously at the World Cup, and only one in the last 28 years before Tuesday’s shocker over the two-time champions.

Here is a look at some of the other major World Cup surprises through the years:

CAMEROON 1, ARGENTINA 0 (1990)

Diego Maradona, another Argentina great, led his country to the 1990 World Cup tournament in Italy as the defending champion. Maradona was established as the best player in the world and Argentina was favored to retain the title.

A little-known Cameroon team that was playing at only its second World Cup had other ideas in the tournament’s opening match against Argentina. Francois Omam-Biyik scored with a second-half header for the African team, which was also down to 10 men at the time after a red card. Cameroon eventually finished the game with nine men after another sending off but kept Argentina and Maradona out.

Argentina did recover to reach the final — something that may raise Messi’s spirits slightly in Qatar — but lost to West Germany in that deciding game.

SENEGAL 1, FRANCE 0 (2002)

France was also World Cup champion when it came up against another African underdog at the start of the 2002 tournament in South Korea and Japan.

France’s team was packed with some of the best players in the world and no one thought they could lose the game. But Papa Bouba Diop bundled in a goal in the 30th minute and Senegal kept its nerve for a famous win on its World Cup debut.

France ended up exiting in the group stage. Senegal went on to reach the quarterfinals, just as Cameroon did in 1990.

SOUTH KOREA 2, ITALY 1 (2002)

The 2002 World Cup threw up another eye-opener when co-host South Korea made a run to the semifinals.

South Korea had beaten Portugal in the group stage but bettered that upset with a 2-1 win in extra time over Italy in the last 16. Italy was a three-time champion at the time while South Korea had never won a World Cup game before the tournament.

Ahn Jung-hwan, who was playing his club soccer in Italy at the time, headed in a golden goal three minutes from the end of extra time to send the Italians home and reward a fanatical home crowd with a lasting World Cup memory.

UNITED STATES 1, ENGLAND 0 (1950)

Haitian-born Joe Gaetjens was the unlikely hero for the United States in a 1-0 upset over England at 1950 World Cup in Brazil.

The American team was basically made up of part-timers and the result reverberated across the game as one of the first big World Cup upsets.

NORTH KOREA 1, ITALY 0 (1966)

Italy was on the wrong end of another upset in 1966 in England, when North Korea beat the Azzurri 1-0 in the first World Cup it ever played in. The result eliminated the Italians and sent the North Koreans to the quarterfinals.

North Korea wasn’t even expected to qualify for the tournament and didn’t play at another World Cup until 2010.

___

AP World Cup coverage: https://apnews.com/hub/world-cup and https://twitter.com/AP_Sports

US Moves To Shield Saudi Crown Prince In Journalist Killing

Saudi Arabia's Crown Prince and Prime Minister Mohammed bin Salman Al Saud during the G20 Summit in Nusa Dua, Bali, Indonesia, Tuesday Nov. 15, 2022. (Mast Irham/Pool Photo via AP)

BY ELLEN KNICKMEYER AND MATTHEW LEE

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Biden administration says Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman’s high office should shield him from a lawsuit over his role in the killing of a U.S.-based journalist, making a turnaround from Joe Biden’s passionate campaign trail denunciations of the prince over the brutal slaying.

The administration spoke out in support of a claim of legal immunity from Prince Mohammed — Saudi Arabia’s de facto ruler, who also recently took the title of prime minister — against a suit brought by the fiancée of slain Washington Post columnist Jamal Khashoggi and by the rights group Khashoggi founded, Democracy for the Arab World Now.

“Jamal died again today,” Khashoggi’s fiancée, Hatice Cengiz, tweeted after the U.S. filing late Thursday in her lawsuit.

The U.S. government’s finding of immunity for the Prince Mohammed, sometimes known as MBS, is non-binding, and a judge will ultimately decide whether to grant immunity. But it angered rights activists and risked blowback from Democratic lawmakers. The U.S move came as Saudi Arabia has stepped up imprisonment and other retaliation against peaceful critics at home and abroad and has cut oil production, a move seen as undercutting efforts by the U.S. and its allies to punish Russia for its war against Ukraine.

The State Department on Thursday called the administration’s call to shield the Saudi crown prince from U.S. courts in Khashoggi’s 2018 killing “purely a legal determination.” It cited what it called longstanding precedent.

Despite its recommendation to the court, the State Department said in its filing late Thursday that it “takes no view on the merits of the present suit and reiterates its unequivocal condemnation of the heinous murder of Jamal Khashoggi.”

Saudi officials killed Khashoggi at the Saudi consulate in Istanbul. They are believed to have dismembered him, although his remains have never been found. The U.S. intelligence community concluded Saudi Arabia’s crown prince had approved the killing of the widely known and respected journalist, who had written critically of Prince Mohammed’s harsh ways of silencing of those he considered rivals or critics.

The Biden administration statement Thursday noted visa restrictions and other penalties that it had meted out to lower-ranking Saudi officials in the death.

“From the earliest days of this Administration, the United States Government has expressed its grave concerns regarding Saudi agents’ responsibility for Jamal Khashoggi’s murder,” the State Department said. Its statement did not mention the crown prince’s own alleged role.

Biden as a Democratic presidential candidate vowed to make a “pariah” out of Saudi rulers over the 2018 killing of Khashoggi.

“I think it was a flat-out murder,” Biden said in a 2019 CNN town hall, as a candidate. “And I think we should have nailed it as that. I publicly said at the time we should treat it that way and there should be consequences relating to how we deal with those — that power.”

But Biden as president has sought to ease tensions with the kingdom, including bumping fists with Prince Mohammed on a July trip to the kingdom, as the U.S. works to persuade Saudi Arabia to undo a series of cuts in oil production.

Khashoggi’s fiancée and DAWN sued the crown prince, his top aides and others in Washington federal court over their alleged roles in Khashoggi’s killing. Saudi Arabia says the prince had no direct role in the slaying.

“It’s beyond ironic that President Biden has singlehandedly assured MBS can escape accountability when it was President Biden who promised the American people he would do everything to hold him accountable,” the head of DAWN, Sarah Leah Whitson, said in a statement, using the prince’s acronym.

Biden in February 2021 had ruled out the U.S. government imposing punishment on Prince Mohammed himself in the killing of Khashoggi, a resident of the Washington area. Biden, speaking after he authorized release of a declassified version of the intelligence community’s findings on Prince Mohammed’s role in the killing, argued at the time there was no precedent for the U.S. to move against the leader of a strategic partner.

The U.S. military long has safeguarded Saudi Arabia from external enemies, in exchange for Saudi Arabia keeping global oil markets afloat.

“It’s impossible to read the Biden administration’s move today as anything more than a capitulation to Saudi pressure tactics, including slashing oil output to twist our arms to recognize MBS’s fake immunity ploy,” Whitson said.

A federal judge in Washington had given the U.S. government until midnight Thursday to express an opinion on the claim by the crown prince’s lawyers that Prince Mohammed’s high official standing renders him legally immune in the case.

The Biden administration also had the option of not stating an opinion either way.

Sovereign immunity, a concept rooted in international law, holds that states and their officials are protected from some legal proceedings in other foreign states’ domestic courts.

Upholding the concept of “sovereign immunity” helps ensure that American leaders in turn don’t have to worry about being hauled into foreign courts to face lawsuits in other countries, the State Department said.

Human rights advocates had argued that the Biden administration would embolden Prince Mohammed and other authoritarian leaders around the world in more rights abuses if it supported the crown prince’s claim that his high office shielded him from prosecution.

Prince Mohammed serves as Saudi Arabia’s de facto ruler in the stead of his aged father, King Salman. The Saudi king in September also temporarily transferred his title of prime minister — a title normally held by the Saudi monarch — to Prince Mohammed. Critics called it a bid to strengthen Mohammed’s immunity claim.

Eric Tucker and Aamer Madhani contributed.

Saudis Detain American Woman Seeking To Leave With Daughter

FILE - Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman prepares to greet French President Emmanuel Macron as he arrives for a dinner at the Elysee Palace in Paris, July 28, 2022. (AP Photo/Lewis Joly, File)

BY ELLEN KNICKMEYER AND MATTHEW LEE

WASHINGTON (AP) — Saudi Arabia has taken into custody an American woman who has been locked in a yearslong struggle to take her young daughter back out of the kingdom over the objections of her Saudi ex-husband, according to U.S. officials and a U.S.-based advocacy group Tuesday.

Carly Morris was summoned to a police station in the north-central city of Buraidah on Monday, and has yet to be released by Saudi authorities, according to the Washington-based Freedom Initiative. The group advocates for people it believes wrongfully detained in the Middle East.

U.S. officials said Saudi authorities had confirmed the detention of Morris, whose efforts to leave the kingdom with her now 8-year-old daughter have been made more difficult by Saudi Arabia’s strict male guardianship laws. Morris in recent months had spoken to reporters and tweeted about her circumstances.

“Our embassy in Riyadh is very engaged on this case, and they’re following the situation very closely,” State Department spokesman Ned Price said in Washington on Tuesday.

The Saudi Embassy in Washington and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs did not immediately respond to an email seeking comment.

Saudi Arabia under Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman increasingly has been including U.S. citizens and Western-based Saudis in a general crackdown on those the government sees as rivals or critics.

In August, a Saudi court gave a 16-year prison sentence to a 72-year-old Saudi-American, Saad al Madi, for critical tweets he had posted over the years from his home in Florida.

Morris had traveled to Saudi Arabia in 2019 for what was intended to be a short stay to allow her daughter, also an American citizen, to meet the family of the Saudi father, said Bethany Al-Haidari, Freedom Initiative’s Saudi Arabia case manager.

Saudi Arabia’s code of male guardianship served to keep the daughter in the kingdom. Saudi Arabia allegedly placed Morris herself under one of its widely imposed travel bans, barring her from leaving the country.

Morris recently tweeted warnings to other women with children abroad about Saudi Arabia, al Haidari said.

President Joe Biden had vowed as a candidate to isolate Prince Mohammed, the kingdom’s de facto ruler, over rights abuses. The Biden administration hopes now to persuade the kingdom to pump more oil for the global market, and has worked to close the rift between the two strategic partners.

The American woman’s detention was “yet another sign” that Saudi Arabia simply does not value the U.S. as an ally, said Allison McManus, the Freedom Initiative’s Director of Research.

As Gas Prices Soar, Biden Leans Toward Visiting Saudi Arabia

In this photo released by Saudi Royal Palace, Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, speaks during the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) Summit in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, Tuesday, Dec. 14, 2021. Strategic U.S. interests in oil and security are pushing President Joe Biden toward meeting with Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman during an overseas trip later this month. (Bandar Aljaloud/Saudi Royal Palace via AP, File)

BY AAMER MADHANI AND ELLEN KNICKMEYER

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Joe Biden is leaning towards making a visit to Saudi Arabia — a trip that would likely bring him face-to-face with the Saudi crown prince he once shunned as a killer.

The White House is weighing a visit to Saudi Arabia that would also include a meeting of the leaders of the Gulf Cooperation Council countries (Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and United Arab Emirates) as well as Egypt, Iraq and Jordan, according to a person familiar with White House planning. The person spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss the yet-to-be finalized plans.

It comes at a moment when overriding U.S. strategic interests in oil and security have pushed the administration to rethink the arms-length stance that Biden pledged to take with the Saudis as a candidate for the White House.

Any meeting between Biden and de facto Saudi ruler Prince Mohammed bin Salman during a Biden visit to the Middle East could offer hope of some relief for U.S. gasoline consumers, who are wincing as a squeaky-tight global oil supply drives up prices. Biden would be expected to meet with Prince Mohammed, who is often referred to by his initials, MBS — if the Saudi visit happens, according to the person familiar with the deliberations.

Such a meeting could also ease one of the most fraught and uncertain periods in a partnership between Saudi Arabia, the world’s top oil exporter, and the United States, the world’s top economic and military power, that has stood for more than three-quarters of a century.

But it also risks a public humbling for the U.S. leader, who in 2019 pledged to make a “pariah” of the Saudi royal family over the 2018 killing and dismemberment of U.S.-based journalist Jamal Khashoggi, a newspaper critic of many of the brutal ways that Prince Mohammed operates.

White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre on Wednesday declined to comment on whether Biden will travel to Saudi Arabia. Biden is expected to travel to Europe at the end of June. He could tack on a stop in Saudi Arabia to meet with Prince Mohammed, Saudi King Salman and other leaders. The president would also likely visit Israel should he extend his upcoming travels to include Saudi Arabia.

Last week, the White House confirmed that NSC Middle East coordinator Brett McGurk and Amos Hochstein, a senior adviser for energy security at the State Department, were recently in the region. Secretary of State Antony Blinken spoke by phone Monday with his Saudi counterpart.

McGurk and Hochstein, as well as Tim Lenderking, the U.S. special envoy for Yemen, have repeatedly visited Saudi Arabia for talks with Saudi officials about energy supplies, Biden administration efforts to revive the Iran nuclear deal and Saudi’s war in Yemen, recently calmed by a cease-fire.

For Biden, the political dangers of offering his hand to Prince Mohammed include the potential for an embarrassing last-minute public rebuff from a still-offended crown prince known for imperious, harsh actions. Since Prince Mohammed became crown prince in 2017, that has included detaining his own royal uncles and cousins as well as Saudi rights advocates, and, according to the U.S. intelligence community, directing Khashoggi’s killing. Saudi Arabia denies involvement by the crown prince.

Still, Biden stood ready to greet the prince at last October’s G20 summit in Rome, but Prince Mohammed did not attend.

And any Biden climbdown from his passionate human-rights pledge — Saudi rulers would “pay the price” for Khashoggi’s killing, Biden vowed on the debate stage during his campaign — risks more disillusionment for Democratic voters. They have watched Biden struggle to accomplish his domestic agenda in the face of a strong GOP minority in the Senate.

Democrats appear less vocal now in demands that the U.S. take a hard line with Saudi Arabia’s crown prince. Near-record gas prices are endangering their prospects in the November midterm election.

A leading congressional critic of the Saudi government, Rep. Gerald Connolly of Virginia, said in an email the United States “should reassess its unconditional support for Saudi Arabia.” But he and other Democrats are not publicly telling Biden he shouldn’t meet with Prince Mohammed.

Lawmakers point especially to Saudi Arabia’s refusal despite months of Western appeals to veer from an oil production cap brokered largely between the Saudi kingdom and oil-producer Russia. The production cap is adding to oil supply shortfalls stemming from Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

At the same time, British Prime Minister Boris Johnson and French President Emmanuel Macron have privately urged Biden to work to soothe U.S.-Saudi relations as has Israel, which sees the kingdom as an essential player in countering Iran.

Besides helping to keep gas prices high for consumers globally, the tight supply helps Russia get better prices for the oil and gas it is selling to fund its invasion of Ukraine. Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov visited the Saudi kingdom Tuesday, even as talk of a possible Biden-Prince Mohammed meeting grew in Washington.

Frequent, warm visits among Saudi, Russian and Chinese officials during the freeze between Biden and the Saudi crown prince have heightened Western concern that Saudi Arabia is breaking from Western strategic interests.

The United States for decades has ensured U.S. or allied aircraft carriers, troops and trainers and missile batteries remain deployed in defense of Saudi Arabia and its oil fields, and in defense of other Gulf states. The military commitment recognizes that a stable global oil market and a Gulf counterbalance to Iran are in U.S. strategic interests.

From Saudi Arabia, the United States is looking “for real assurances that it is going to be firmly aligned with the United States internationally, and not drift toward or hedge by trying to have comparable relationships with Russia and China. That goes beyond just oil,” said Dan Shapiro, a former U.S. ambassador to Israel. Shapiro is an advocate of bilateral Abraham accords that have helped establish closer ties between some Arab states and Israel.

“The United States needs to have some assurance that it’s going to provide those security guarantees and it has a real partner that’s going to be like a partner,” said Shapiro, now a distinguished fellow at the Atlantic Council.

Officials in Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates, for their part, often see Biden as the latest of several U.S. presidents to neglect the U.S. military’s longstanding protector role in the Gulf, as Washington tries to extricate itself from Middle East conflicts to focus on China.

Those Gulf security worries may be eased by the U.S. move last year bringing control of its forces in Israel under U.S. Central Command. That effectively increases interaction between Israel’s U.S.-equipped military and Arab forces under the U.S. military umbrella, Shapiro said.

Deputy Saudi Defense Minister Khalid bin Salman visited CENTCOM headquarters in Florida last month. Regional coordination was one of the main topics, including, Shapiro said, the possibility of such steps as coordinating the Middle East’s air defense capabilities.

Blinken and White House national security adviser Jake Sullivan also met last month with the Saudi defense official. Sullivan said he talked energy. CIA Director William Burns visited Prince Mohammed in Saudi Arabia in April.

Biden administration officials bristle at the notion that a stepped-up engagement is simply about getting the Saudis to help ease gas prices. Jean-Pierre said last week after McGurk and Hochstein’s most recent travels to the region that the idea that the White House is asking the Saudis to pump more oil “is simply wrong” and “a misunderstanding of both the complexity of that issue, as well as our multifaceted discussions with the Saudis.”

“The president’s words still stand,” she added Wednesday, of Biden’s pledge that the Saudis would “pay a price.”

Jon Gambrell in Dubai, United Arab Emirates, contributed to this report.

Houthis, Aid Group: Death Toll From Prison Airstrike Hits 82

People inspect the wreckage of buildings that were damaged by Saudi-led coalition airstrikes, in Sanaa, Yemen, Tuesday, Jan. 18, 2022. The coalition fighting in Yemen announced it had started a bombing campaign targeting Houthi sites a day after a fatal attack on an oil facility in the capital of the United Arab Emirates claimed by Yemen’s Houthi rebels. It said it also struck a drone operating base in Nabi Shuaib Mountain near Sanaa. (AP Photo/Hani Mohammed)

BY SAMY MAGDY

CAIRO (AP) — The death toll from a Saudi-led coalition airstrike that hit a prison run by Yemen’s Houthi rebels has climbed to at least 82 detainees, the rebels and an aid group said Saturday.

Internet access in the Arab world’s poorest country meanwhile remained largely down as the coalition continued airstrikes on the rebel-held capital, Sanaa, and elsewhere.

The airstrike in the northern Saada province Friday was part of an intense air and ground offensive that marked an escalation in Yemen’s yearslong civil war. The conflict pits the internationally recognized government, aided by the Saudi-led coalition, against the Iranian-backed rebels.

The increase in hostilities follows a Houthi claim of a drone and missile attack that struck inside the United Arab Emirates’ capital earlier in the week. It also comes as government forces, aided by UAE-backed troops and coalition airstrikes, have reclaimed the entire Shabwa province from the Houthis and pressured them in the central Marib province. Houthis there have for a year attempted to take control of its provincial capital.

Ahmed Mahat, head of Doctors Without Borders’s mission in Yemen, told The Associated Press his group counted at least 82 dead and more than 265 wounded in the airstrike.

The Houthis’ media office said rescuers were still searching for survivors and bodies in the rubble of the prison site in Saada on the border with Saudi Arabia.

Saudi coalition spokesman Brig. Gen. Turki al-Malki said the Houthis hadn’t reported the site as needing protection from airstrikes to the U.N. or the International Committee of the Red Cross. He claimed the Houthis’ failure to do so represented the militia’s “usual deceptive approach” in the conflict.

The Houthis used the prison complex to hold detained migrants, mostly Africans attempting to cross through the war-torn country into Saudi Arabia, according to the humanitarian organization Save the Children.

But Mahat, of Doctors Without Borders, said the airstrike hit a different part of the facility housing other types of detainees, and no migrants were killed.

Al-Malki said reports that the coalition targeted the prison were inaccurate and that the coalition would correspond “facts and details” to the U.N. and the ICRC, according to Saudi state-run television.

The Saada attack followed another Saudi-led coalition airstrike Friday at the Red Sea port city of Hodeida that hit a telecommunications center key to Yemen’s connection to the internet. Access to the internet has remained “largely down for more than 24 hours” in the country, advocacy group NetBlocks said Saturday.

The Saada airstrike, one of the deadliest of the war, was not the first to hit a Houthi-run prison. A September 2019 airstrike hit a detention center the southwestern Dhamar province, killing more than 100 people and wounding dozens.

Rights groups have previously documented that the Houthis placing civilian detention centers near military barracks under constant threat of airstrikes.

Friday’s airstrikes have renewed criticism of the coalition from the United Nations and international aid and rights groups, who just days previous had blasted the Houthis for the attack on the Emirates.

Saudi-led coalition airstrikes have hit schools, hospitals and wedding parties, killing an estimated thousands of civilians according to monitoring groups. The Houthis meanwhile have used child soldiers and indiscriminately laid land mines across the country. They also launched cross-border attacks using ballistic missiles and explosives-laden drones on Saudi Arabia and the UAE.

The coalition continued its airstrikes on Sanaa and elsewhere Saturday, targeting a Houthi-held military facility and an abandoned headquarters of Yemeni state TV in the capital. The coalition said airstrikes also targeted the Houthis in the contested Harib district in Marib.

And Yemeni forces closely allied with the UAE, known as the Giants Brigades, said they shot down three drones carrying explosives launched by the Houthis on government-held areas in Marib and Shabwa provinces.

The rebels, meanwhile, held a funeral procession in Sanaa for a senior military official killed along with family members in a coalition airstrike last week. Hundreds of Houthi supporters attended the military funeral of Gen. Abdalla Kassem al-Junaid, who headed the Air Academy.

Secretary of State Antony J. Blinken urged the warring parties to stop the escalation.

“We urge all parties to commit to a peaceful, diplomatic solution to ending the conflict. The Yemeni people deserve to live in peace and determine their own future,” he wrote on Twitter.

The latest escalation comes almost a year after President Joe Biden’s administration announced an end to U.S. support for the coalition and removed the designation of the Houthis as a terrorist group as part of American efforts to end the grinding war.

The Houthi-claimed attack on the UAE on Monday prompted Biden to say that his administration would consider restoring the status of the Iranian-backed rebels as terrorists.

The latest fighting is some of the most intense since the 2018 battle for Hodeida and comes after a year of U.S. and U.N. diplomatic efforts failed to bring the two sides to the negotiating table. On Friday, the U.N. criticized the Houthis for not even allowing the body’s new envoy to visit their territories. Pitched fighting in Marib has remained a major sticking point, as the Houthis attempt to complete their control of the northern half of Yemen.

“The coalition has pulled the stops out to prevent a collapse in Marib and to shift the conflict towards a military equilibrium,” said Peter Salisbury, Yemen expert at the International Crisis Group.

The conflict in the Arab world’s poorest country began in 2014, when the Houthis took Sanaa and much of northern Yemen, forcing the government to flee to the south, then into exile in Saudi Arabia. The Saudi-led coalition, backed at the time by the U.S., entered the war months later to try to restore the government to power.

The conflict has since become a regional proxy war that has killed tens of thousands of civilians and fighters. The war also created the world’s worst humanitarian crisis, leaving millions suffering from food and medical care shortages and pushing the country to the brink of famine.

Associated Press writer Edith M. Lederer at the United Nations contributed to this report.

Saudis Sentence 5 To Death For Jamal Khashoggi's Killing

In this Nov. 2, 2018 file photo, a video image of Hatice Cengiz, fiancee of slain Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi, is played during an event to remember Khashoggi, who died inside the Saudi Consulate in Istanbul on Oct. 2, 2018, in Washington. A court in Saudi Arabia has sentenced five people to death for the killing of Washington Post columnist Jamal Khashoggi, who was murdered in the Saudi Consulate in Istanbul last year by a team of Saudi agents. Saudi Arabia's state TV reported Monday, Dec. 23, 2019 that three others were sentenced to prison. All can appeal the verdicts. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite, File)

BY ABDULLAH AL-SHIHRI, AYA BATRAWY

RIYADH, SAUDI ARABIA (AP) — A court in Saudi Arabia sentenced five people to death Monday for the killing of Washington Post columnist and royal family critic Jamal Khashoggi, whose grisly slaying in the Saudi Consulate in Istanbul drew international condemnation and cast a cloud of suspicion over Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman.

Three other people were found guilty by Riyadh’s criminal court of covering up the crime and were sentenced to a combined 24 years in prison, according to a statement read by the Saudi attorney general’s office on state TV.

In all, 11 people were put on trial in Saudi Arabia over the killing. The names of those found guilty were not made public by the government. Executions in the kingdom are carried out by beheading, sometimes in public. All the verdicts can be appealed.

A small number of diplomats, including from Turkey, as well as members of Khashoggi’s family were allowed to attend the nine court sessions, though independent media were barred.

While the case in Saudi Arabia has largely concluded, questions linger outside Riyadh about the crown prince’s culpability in the slaying.

Agnes Callamard, who investigated the killing for the United Nations, reacted by tweeting that the verdicts are a “mockery” and that the masterminds behind the crime “have barely been touched by the investigation and the trial.” Amnesty International called the outcome “a whitewash which brings neither justice nor truth.”

Khashoggi, who was a resident of the U.S., had walked into his country’s consulate on Oct. 2, 2018, for a appointment to pick up documents that would allow him to marry his Turkish fiancee. He never walked out, and his body has not been found.

A team of 15 Saudi agents had flown to Turkey to meet Khashoggi inside the consulate. They included a forensic doctor, intelligence and security officers and individuals who worked for the crown prince’s office, according to Callamard’s independent investigation. Turkish officials allege Khashoggi was killed and then dismembered with a bone saw.

The slaying stunned Saudi Arabia’s Western allies and immediately raised questions about how the high-level operation could have been carried out without the knowledge of Prince Mohammed — even as the kingdom insists the crown prince had nothing to do with the killing.

In an interview in September with CBS’ “60 Minutes”, Prince Mohammed said: “I take full responsibility as a leader in Saudi Arabia.” But he reiterated that he had no knowledge of the operation, saying he could not keep such close track of the country’s millions of employees.

The prince’s father, King Salman, ordered a shake-up of top security posts after the killing.

Turkey, a rival of Saudi Arabia, has used the killing on its soil to pressure the kingdom. Turkey, which had demanded the suspects be tried there, apparently had the Saudi Consulate bugged and has shared audio of the killing with the C.I.A., among others.

Saudi Arabia initially offered shifting accounts about Khashoggi’s disappearance. As international pressure mounted because of the Turkish leaks, the kingdom eventually settled on the explanation that he was killed by rogue officials in a brawl.

The trial concluded the killing was not premeditated, according to Shaalan al-Shaalan, a spokesperson from the Saudi attorney general’s office.

The 101-page report released this year by Callamard, the U.N. special rapporteur for extrajudicial, summary and arbitrary executions, included details from the audio Turkish authorities shared with her. She reported hearing Saudi agents waiting for Khashoggi to arrive and one of them asking how they would carry out the body.

Not to worry, the doctor said. “Joints will be separated. It is not a problem,” he said in the audio. “If we take plastic bags and cut it into pieces, it will be finished. We will wrap each of them.”

Khashoggi had spent the last year of his life in exile in the U.S. writing in the Post about human rights violations in Saudi Arabia. At a time when Prince Mohammed’s social reforms were being widely hailed in the West, Khashoggi’s columns criticized the parallel crackdown on dissent the prince was overseeing. Numerous critics of the Saudi crown prince are in prison and face trial on national security charges.

In Washington, Congress has said it believes Prince Mohammed is “responsible for the murder.” President Donald Trump has condemned the killing but has stood by the 34-year-old crown prince and defended U.S.-Saudi ties. Washington has sanctioned 17 Saudis suspected of being involved.

Among those sanctioned is Saud al-Qahtani, a hawkish former adviser to the crown prince. The Saudi attorney general’s office said Monday that al-Qahtani was investigated and had no proven involvement in the killing.

Meanwhile, Ahmed al-Asiri, also a former adviser to the crown prince who was deputy head of intelligence, was tried and released because of insufficient evidence, the attorney general’s office said.

The court also ordered the release of Saudi Arabia’s consul-general in Istanbul at the time, Mohammed al-Otaibi. He is among those sanctioned by the U.S. over his “involvement in gross violations of human rights.” The U.S. State Department has also issued travel bans against his immediate family.

In Turkey, Yasin Aktay, a member of Turkey’s ruling party and a friend of Khashoggi’s, criticized the verdict, saying the Saudi court had failed to bring the real perpetrators to justice.

“The prosecutor sentenced five hit men to death but did not touch those who were behind the five,” Aktay said.

Although Khashoggi’s killing tarnished Prince Mohammed’s reputation in the West, he is hugely popular at home, especially among young Saudis happy with the social changes he has ushered in. Some American executives who had stayed away because of the backlash over the slaying have resumed doing business with the kingdom.

Saudi Arabia over the past months has opened the previously closed-off country to tourists and travelers from around the world as part of a push to boost the economy and change perceptions of the kingdom.

Batrawy reported from Dubai, United Arab Emirates. Associated Press writer Suzan Fraser in Ankara, Turkey, contributed to this report.

AP INTERVIEW: Joshua Out To Regain Aura, Belts In Rematch

Anthony Joshua. Image: Pinterest

BY STEVE DOUGLAS

RIYADH, SAUDI ARABIA (AP)--Anthony Joshua didn't just lose three world heavyweight titles and an undefeated record when he was beaten by Andy Ruiz Jr. in one of boxing's biggest upsets in a generation.

He lost his aura, his growing sense of invincibility.

So Joshua has had to reinvent himself, strip everything back and, in a sense, start all over.

That began by going back to his roots in Nigeria.

“Because of boxing, I’ve never had time to go there,” Joshua told The Associated Press of his first return in 17 years to the homeland of his parents and where he briefly went to boarding school at the age of 11. “In Nigeria, the people love you for you, not for what you have.”

At the lowest point of his professional career and with people starting to question him for the first time, Joshua needed time to reflect and to have a dose of reality. He visited Makoko, a slum just off mainland Lagos that is largely a floating community of wooden homes on swampland.

Joshua is adored there, and they mobbed their icon.

“It was good to see hope,” Joshua recalled. “Anyone that can bring hope to you, they appreciate it and they appreciate my journey so far. That’s what I liked. We’re on a journey.”

Joshua's journey took an unexpected detour with that loss to Ruiz Jr. in June. But it may well be the making of him.

The Briton heads into the rematch in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, on Saturday as something of a changed man. More humble, more accepting of vicissitudes of his sport, and eager to learn from his mistakes.

Joshua accepts there were plenty of them before the first fight in Madison Square Garden. He still won't say exactly what went wrong that night in New York, but he acknowledges he “wasn't prepared” for the challenge of Ruiz Jr. — a portly Mexican with a big heart, fast hands and unexpected power. Ruiz Jr., who stood in as a late replacement after Jarrell Miller failed multiple doping tests, knocked down Joshua four times before the fight was stopped in the seventh round, the defeated champion somewhat dazed and disheveled.

Joshua has ignored some calls to dispense with his long-time trainer, Rob McCracken — the pair go way back, to before Joshua won an Olympic gold medal at the 2012 London Games — but has changed his sparring partners, his routines, and his mentality.

“Last time when I lost, I understood why,” Joshua told the AP in a phone interview after arriving in Riyadh. "I took it like a man, I'd say. I took it like a champion should. Because I understood my mistakes. And I’ve changed them, I’ve rectified them.

“If anything wasn’t to go my way this time, I just have to say the man is better than me. He is a tricky customer but I think I’m a better fighter than him, even though I didn’t get the decision last time. I went straight back in. I didn’t say, ‘Ah, I need a warm-up fight.’ I knew where I went wrong. I know how to improve it, and I’ve done that.”

Time will tell, but there's a sense Joshua is more comfortable in Saudi Arabia than he was in the bright lights of New York five months ago, when he was making his U.S. debut and, maybe, took his eye off the ball.

While retaining that chiseled physique that could not contrast more with Ruiz Jr.'s, Joshua looked slimmer and lighter during his public workouts in Riyadh this week.

And because he is having to prove himself all over again, Joshua said he compares this fight with the first of the 23 in his pro career.

“I have erased the old fight from my memory and I’m approaching it like I’m fighting for the heavyweight championship of the world, which I am. I’m not looking at it as a rematch,” Joshua said.

“Even though I’ve had a belt around my waist, I’ve always had that challenger mindset because even in my 15th fight, I challenged for the British title. The 16th (was for the) world title, defend, defend, challenge again, so it’s part and parcel of the game now. I’m used to the tough challenges.”

Another loss to Ruiz Jr. — in a fight with a reported $70 million purse and being televised by the DAZN streaming service — and there would be serious questions about Joshua, one of Britain's most celebrated sportsmen and someone whose career trajectory was only heading one way until last summer. Fights with the likes of Deontay Wilder and Tyson Fury would be further away then ever.

But he's not thinking that way. He's embracing taking boxing to a new audience, shrugging off the fact that the fight will take place in a kingdom where there are human-rights concerns, and is desperate to regain his IBF, WBA and WBO belts.

“Of course people doubt me,” Joshua said. “But the main thing is I’m still here. I’m not discouraged. That’s all I can say.”

More AP sports: https://apnews.com/apf-sports and https://twitter.com/AP_Sports

Steve Douglas is at www.twitter.com/sdouglas80

Saudi crown prince takes responsibility for journalist death

In this Sept. 18, 2019, file photo, Saudi Arabia's Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman attends a meeting with U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia. The crown prince said in a television interview that aired Sunday, Sept. 29, that he takes "full responsibility" for the grisly murder of Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi, but denied allegations that he ordered it. (Mandel Ngan/Pool Photo via AP, File)

THE ASSOCCIATED PRESS

NEW YORK (AP) — Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman said in a television interview that he takes “full responsibility” for the grisly killing of Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi, but he denied allegations that he ordered it.

“This was a heinous crime,” Prince Mohammed, 34, told “60 Minutes” in an interview that aired Sunday. “But I take full responsibility as a leader in Saudi Arabia, especially since it was committed by individuals working for the Saudi government.”

Asked if he ordered the killing of Khashoggi, who had criticized him in columns for The Washington Post, Prince Mohammed replied: “Absolutely not.”

The slaying was “a mistake,” he said.

Khashoggi entered the Saudi consulate in Turkey on Oct. 2, 2018, to collect a document that he needed to marry his Turkish fiancee. Agents of the Saudi government killed Khashoggi inside the consulate and apparently dismembered his body, which has never been found. Saudi Arabia has charged 11 people in the slaying and put them on trial, which has been held in secret. As of yet, no one has been convicted.

A U.N. report asserted that Saudi Arabia bore responsibility for the killing and said Prince Mohammed’s possible role in it should be investigated. In Washington, Congress has said it believes Prince Mohammed is “responsible for the murder.” Saudi Arabia has long insisted the crown prince had no involvement in an operation that included agents who reported directly to him.

“Some think that I should know what 3 million people working for the Saudi government do daily,” the powerful heir told “60 Minutes.” ″It’s impossible that the 3 million would send their daily reports to the leader or the second-highest person in the Saudi government.”

In an interview Thursday in New York, Khashoggi’s fiancee, Hatice Cengiz, told The Associated Press that responsibility for Khashoggi’s slaying “was not limited to the perpetrators” and said she wanted Prince Mohammed to tell her: “Why was Jamal killed? Where is his body? What was the motive for this murder?”

Prince Mohammed also addressed the Sept. 14 missile and drone attack on Saudi oil facilities. While Yemen’s Iranian-allied Houthi rebels claimed the assault, Saudi Arabia has said it was “unquestionably sponsored by Iran.”

“There is no strategic goal,” Prince Mohammed said of the attack. “Only a fool would attack 5% of global supplies. The only strategic goal is to prove that they are stupid and that is what they did.”

He urged “strong and firm action to deter Iran.”

Aisha Buhari Away From Nigeria For 2 Months

Aisha Buhari. Image via Wikipedia

BY ISMAIL MUDASHIR

Not at events with president. Moves to London after hajj in Saudi Arabia. First Lady, Aisha Buhari, has been out of the country for about two months now, raising concerns at the Presidential Villa, Daily Trust findings have shown. Multiple sources at the presidential villa said the president’s wife left the country in protest against “certain developments” at the presidency.

It was reliably gathered that the first lady, who left the country early August to Saudi Arabia to perform hajj (Muslim pilgrimage), has not returned to the country.

Muslims who participated in the hajj exercise have since returned home, but credible sources at the Villa said the president’s wife has since left Saudi Arabia for London.

“Mama (first lady) is in London. It was from Saudi Arabia that she went to London,” one source said.

 Asked when she is likely to return, the source said, “I don’t know. All I know is that she is in London” Her absence became obvious after she did not appear alongside her husband at some recent official functions.

Our correspondent reports that she was conspicuously absent during the Eid-El-Kabir celebration in Daura, Katsina State. The president hosted many dignitaries including Guinean president, Alpha Conde, during the Sallah celebrations.

 In early July, the first lady supported her husband to host the Ambassador Extraordinary for Nigeria-Niger Cooperation, together with his wife, Fatima at the State House.

Our correspondent observed that recently, at public events, Dr. Hajo Sani, the Senior Special Assistant to the president on administration, has been representing the president’s wife.

For instance, on September 25, she was represented at an event of the Organization of African First Ladies for Development (OAFLAD), on the sidelines of the 74th United Nations General Assembly (UNGA), New York by Dr. Hajo.

 According to a statement from the Director of Information to Aisha Buhari, the event was attended by first ladies of Zimbabwe, Sierra Leone, Uganda and Niger Republic.

 President Buhari was one of the world leaders that attended the 74th UNGA.

However, checks on her Twitter handle @aishabuhari showed that she has remained active on the social media platform, as only six days ago she retweeted a post on the war against corruption.

Efforts to get the reaction of her media aide, Suleiman Haruna, yielded no result. A text message that reads: “In months, her excellency has been out of public glare, locally and abroad. She’s being represented by aides. Where is she?” was sent to him twice. It was first sent on Tuesday and yesterday.

The same text message was sent to a presidential spokesperson, Garba Shehu, yesterday. He replied that her spokesperson should be contacted.

Daily Trust Saturday reports that in June this year, she announced the change of the title of her office from Wife of the President to First Lady. Throughout her husband’s first tenure, her title was Wife of the President.

 Earlier, Aisha had raised the alarm over the deteriorating security situation in the country. During a visit to the home state of the president, Aisha, who hails from Adamawa State, said it would be unfortunate for people who voted wholeheartedly for her husband to be allowed to be killed unnecessarily by bandits.

 She said people must speak out as the killings were worrisome and that if not tackled they could end up consuming everyone.

“When the Katsina SSG spoke out, I sent it to all security outfits in the country. I told them it’s either they go and help out or allow us all to be killed. It is a must for people to come out and speak. Anything that is not right, people should say it, no matter what,” she said.

 Four days to the swearing in of her husband for a second, the first lady faulted the implementation of the federal government’s Social Investment Programmes (SIP).

At an interactive program for women at the State House, Abuja, she said the program which had gulped N470.8bn, had failed in the North. The SIPs are the N-Power, Conditional Cash Transfers, National Home-Grown School Feeding and Government Enterprise and Empowerment Programmes (GEEP).

 Annually, the federal government budgets N500bn for social investment. However, in 2016, only N79.98bn was released, 2017 N140bn and in 2018, N250.4bn was released.

Previously, she had attacked her husband’s administration. She drew worldwide attention when she criticised him in an October 2016 interview with the BBC, saying she feared his administration was veering off from its mandate to the people.

She also expressed doubt that she would support him if he sought re-election unless he implemented immediate changes in personnel and policies.

But on the eve of this year’s general elections, she constituted a campaign team for Buhari despite her threats. The team, with about 700 members drawn from across the country, was inaugurated by President Buhari and played a key role in his re-election.


SOURCE: DAILY TRUST

Saudis Allow Media To See Oil Facility Damaged By Attacks

In this photo opportunity during a trip organized by Saudi information ministry, workers fix the damage in the Aramco's Khurais oil field, Saudi Arabia, Friday, Sept. 20, 2019, after it was hit during Sept. 14 attack. Saudi officials brought journalists Friday to see the damage done in an attack the U.S. alleges Iran carried out. (AP Photo/Amr Nabil)

BY FAY ABUELGASIM, JON GAMBRELL

BUQAYQ, SAUDI ARABIA (AP) — The heart of Saudi Arabia’s oil industry remained wrapped in scaffolding Friday as workers sought to repair the charred innards and shrapnel-blasted arteries caused by drone-and-cruise-missile attacks that raised tensions between the U.S. and Iran.

Saudi officials brought journalists to the kingdom’s crucial Abqaiq oil processing facility, described by the state-run oil giant Saudi Aramco as “the largest crude oil stabilization plant in the world.” It was the first such trip for outsiders to see the damage done to its facilities that have been targeted in a summer-long campaign of attacks.

Saudi Arabia is seeking to build international consensus ahead of the U.N. General Assembly next week after the Sept. 14 attack that it claims was “unquestionably sponsored by Iran.” The U.S. has gone further, alleging Iran carried out the attack as part of a campaign seeking to roil the region as American sanctions on its oil industry prevent it from selling crude oil abroad as Tehran’s 2015 nuclear deal with world powers collapses.

Iran has denied involvement in the attack that was initially claimed by Yemen’s Iranian-backed Houthi rebels. Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif, now heading to New York for the high-level meetings at U.N. headquarters, has warned that any retaliatory strike on Iran by the U.S. or Saudi Arabia will result in “an all-out war.”

President Donald Trump, who withdrew the U.S. from the nuclear deal more than a year ago, said separately Friday that America “just sanctioned the Iranian national bank.” He did not elaborate.

In Abqaiq, an oil facility in the Arabian Peninsula’s sprawling Empty Quarter desert, journalists saw what previously only had been glimpsed in satellite photos released earlier by the U.S.

The attack punched holes in giant metal onion-shaped structures that help separate gas from crude oil. Separation towers there, which process crude oil, were scorched and damaged, with the top of one looking like a melted candle.

Officials said they put out about 10 large fires at the site less than seven hours after the attack. There were at least 18 direct hits on 11 of the spherical structures, five column stabilizers and two small processing facilities, they said.

Abqaiq processes sour crude oil into sweet crude, and it is transported to transshipment points on the Persian Gulf and the Red Sea or to refineries for local production. Estimates suggest it can process up to 7 million barrels of crude oil a day. By comparison, Saudi Arabia produced 9.65 million barrels of crude oil a day in July.

The plant has been targeted before by militants. Al-Qaida-claimed suicide bombers tried but failed to attack the oil complex in February 2006. However, the Sept. 14 attack reached deep inside a facility that analysts long warned was vulnerable, knocking out half of the kingdom’s oil production and spiking crude prices this week by a percentage unseen since the 1991 Gulf War.

Saudi Arabia also flew journalists to its Khurais oil field to see damage done to the oil field, which is believed to produce over 1 million barrels of crude oil a day. Officials there said 110 contractors evacuated the site after the attack, but there were no injuries. They said the oil field was back online within 24 hours of the attack.

An oil stabilization tower was damaged and other pipes had holes from the attack.

Repair crews swarmed both sites beneath large cranes, working through the heat. Saudi Arabia says it already has restored half of the cut production and hopes to have it fully online by the end of the month, although damage at several structures seen by journalists looked severe.

The trip comes as Saudi Arabia hopes to offer a sliver of Saudi Aramco in an initial public offering, a key component of Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman’s development plans for the kingdom. Opening up the facilities slightly to journalists both bolsters Saudi Arabia’s push for international condemnation of the attack while offering at least a glimpse at the crown jewels ahead of the IPO.

While Yemen’s Houthi rebels claimed responsibility for the assault, analysts say the missiles used wouldn’t have enough range to reach the site from the impoverished nation. The missiles and drones used resembled Iranian-made weapons, although analysts say more study is needed to definitively link them to Iran.

A Saudi-led coalition has battled the Houthis in Yemen since March 2015, a conflict that has killed tens of thousands of people and sparked what the U.N. describes as the world’s worst humanitarian crisis.

The International Crisis Group warns that the Saudi attack could push the wider Persian Gulf into war, saying the risk of conflict is “arguably the highest it has been in years.”

“The Aramco strikes were no minor incident: They were perhaps the most significant attacks on Saudi Arabian infrastructure in modern history, and the result of a series of provocations and tit-for-tat exchanges that have been allowed to gather momentum for too long,” the group said. “At this point, a single misstep could set off a chain reaction.”

Underlining that Friday was Iranian Gen. Rahim Safavi, a senior adviser to Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.

“If the Americans think of a conspiracy, the Iranian nation will respond to them from the Mediterranean Sea, Red Sea and Indian Ocean,” Safavi said, according to the state-run IRNA news agency.

Also on Friday, the tiny, oil-rich country of Kuwait said it would increase security at both its commercial and oil ports. Kuwait’s state-run KUNA news agency reported the decision, quoting Khaled al-Roudhan, the minister of commerce and industry.

___

Gambrell reported from Dubai, United Arab Emirates. Associated Press writer Amir Vahdat in Tehran, Iran, contributed.

Attack On Saudi Oil Sites Raises Risks Amid US-Iran Tension

Drone attacks inside Saudi Arabia

BY JON GAMBRELL

DUBAI, UNITED ARAB EMIRATES (AP) — A weekend drone attack on Saudi Arabia that cut into global energy supplies and halved the kingdom’s oil production threatened Sunday to fuel a regional crisis, as Iran denied U.S. allegations it launched the assault and tensions remained high over Tehran’s collapsing nuclear deal. Satellite photos examined by The Associated Press suggested damage at the heart of the kingdom’s crucial oil processing facility.

Iran called the U.S. claims “maximum lies,” while a commander in its paramilitary Revolutionary Guard reiterated its forces could strike U.S. military bases across the Mideast with their arsenal of ballistic missiles. A prominent U.S. senator suggested striking Iranian oil refineries in response to the assault, claimed by Yemen’s Iran-backed Houthi rebels, on Saudi Arabia’s largest oil processing facility.

“Because of the tension and sensitive situation, our region is like a powder keg,” warned Guard Brig. Gen. Amir Ali Hajizadeh. “When these contacts come too close, when forces come into contact with one another, it is possible a conflict happens because of a misunderstanding.”

Actions on any side could break into the open a twilight war that’s been raging just below the surface of the wider Persian Gulf in recent months. Already, there have been mysterious attacks on oil tankers that America blames on Tehran, at least one suspected Israeli strike on Shiite forces in Iraq, and Iran shooting down a U.S. military surveillance drone.

The attack Saturday on Saudi Arabia’s Abqaiq plant and its Khurais oil field led to the interruption of an estimated 5.7 million barrels of the kingdom’s crude oil production per day, equivalent to more than 5% of the world’s daily supply. It remains unclear how King Salman and his assertive son, Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, will respond to an attack targeting the heart of the Saudi oil industry.

There was no immediate impact on global oil prices from the attacks as markets were closed for the weekend, but analysts anticipate a spike in oil prices when markets reopen Monday. Saudi Arabia has promised to fill in the cut in production with its reserves, but has not said how long it will take to repair the damage.

Images from the European Commission’s Sentinel-2 satellite examined by the AP showed black char marks at the heart of the Abqaiq plant on Sunday, marks not seen over the prior month. The Washington-based Center for Strategic and International Studies in August identified the area with the char marks as the plant’s stabilization area. The center said the area includes “storage tanks and processing and compressor trains — which greatly increases the likelihood of a strike successfully disrupting or destroying its operations.”

The state-run oil giant Saudi Aramco, which the kingdom hopes to offer a sliver of in a public stock offering, did not respond to a request for comment.

U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo directly blamed Iran for the Saudi attack on Twitter, without offering evidence to support his claim.

“Amid all the calls for de-escalation, Iran has now launched an unprecedented attack on the world’s energy supply,” Pompeo wrote late Saturday. “There is no evidence the attacks came from Yemen.”

The U.S., Western nations, their Gulf Arab allies and U.N. experts say Iran supplies the Houthis with weapons and drones — a charge that Tehran denies.

U.S. officials previously alleged at least one recent drone attack on Saudi Arabia came from Iraq, where Iran backs Shiite militias. Those militias in recent weeks have been targeted themselves by mysterious airstrikes, with at least one believed to have been carried out by Israel.

Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Abbas Mousavi on Sunday dismissed Pompeo’s remarks as “blind and futile comments.”

“The Americans adopted the ‘maximum pressure’ policy against Iran, which, due to its failure, is leaning toward ‘maximum lies,’” Mousavi said in a statement.

Separately, Iraqi Prime Minister Adel Abdul-Mahdi’s office issued a statement on Sunday denying the drone attack came from there. Iraq “abides by its constitution that prevents the use of its lands to launch aggressions against neighboring countries,” the statement said.

Oil-rich Kuwait also said it would increase security around the country’s “vital sites” over the attacks.

Houthi leader Muhammad al-Bukhaiti reiterated his group’s claim of responsibility, telling The Associated Press on Sunday it exploited “vulnerabilities” in Saudi air defenses to strike the targets. He did not elaborate.

Iran, meanwhile, kept up its own threats.

Hajizadeh, the Guard brigadier general who leads the country’s aerospace program, gave an interview published across Iranian media on Sunday that discussed Iran’s downing of a U.S. drone in July. He said Guard forces were ready for a counterattack if America responded, naming the Al-Udeid Air Base in Qatar and Al-Dhafra Air Base near Abu Dhabi in the United Arab Emirates as immediate targets, as well as U.S. Navy ships in the Persian Gulf and the Arabian Sea.

“Wherever they are, it only takes one spark and we hit their vessels, their air bases, their troops,” he said in a video published online with English subtitles.

It wasn’t just Iran making threats. U.S. Sen. Lindsey Graham, a South Carolina Republican close to President Donald Trump, suggested retaliatory strikes targeting Iran.

“Iran will not stop their misbehavior until the consequences become more real, like attacking their refineries, which will break the regime’s back,” Graham wrote on Twitter.

All this comes before the United Nations General Assembly, which will draw world leaders to New York in a little over a week. There’s been speculation of a potential meeting between Trump and Iranian President Hassan Rouhani on the summit’s sidelines, possibly in exchange for the lifting of some economic sanctions the American leader imposed on Tehran after unilaterally withdrawing from the nuclear accord over a year ago.

If Iran had a hand in Saturday’s attack, it could be to bolster their position ahead of any talks, analysts say.

“The main point for Iran, in my opinion, is not necessarily to derail a meeting between Trump and Rouhani but to increase its leverage ahead of it,” said Michael Horowitz, the head of intelligence at the Bahrain-based risk management firm Le Beck International. “By carrying out such a major attack, Iran wants to send the message that the only way to decrease tensions is to comply with its demands regarding sanctions relief.”

However, he warned there could be a danger of Iran “overplaying” its hand.

“There will be no political benefit for Trump in a meeting with Rouhani if this meeting sends the message that the U.S. simply surrendered to Iranian demands,” he said.

Before Saturdays, attack, benchmark Brent crude had been trading at just above $60 a barrel, but analysts anticipated a spike in oil prices when markets reopen Monday.

Associated Press writers Amir Vahdat in Tehran, Iran; Aya Batrawy in Dubai, United Arab Emirates; Bassem Mroue in Beirut and Samy Magdy in Cairo contributed to this report.

The Latest: US 'Ready' To Deploy Resources From Reserves

This Saturday, Sept. 14, 2019, satellite image provided by NASA Worldview shows fires following Yemen's Houthi rebels claiming a drone attack on two major oil installations in eastern Saudi Arabia. The drones attacked the world's largest oil processing facility in Saudi Arabia and a major oilfield operated by Saudi Aramco early Saturday, sparking a huge fire at a processor crucial to global energy supplies. The island shown in the image is Bahrain, while the peninsula in the image is Qatar. (NASA Worldview via AP)

THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

DUBAI, UNITED ARAB EMIRATES (AP) — The Latest on the explosion and fire at a major oil facility in Saudi Arabia (all times local):

3:10 a.m.

The U.S. Energy Department says the U.S. “stands ready to deploy resources from the Strategic Petroleum Oil Reserves if necessary to offset any disruptions to oil markets” in the wake of a drone attack in Saudi Arabia on the world’s largest oil processing facility.

In a statement Saturday night, the department said Energy Secretary Rick Perry has also directed department leadership to work with the International Energy Agency on potential available options for collective global action if needed. Nations of the 30-member IEA seek to respond to disruptions in the oil supply and advocate for energy policy.

The U.S. strategic oil reserves holds 630 million barrels.

Huge fires erupted Saturday after Yemen’s Houthi rebels used drones to attack the Abqaiq oil processing facility and the Khurais oil field. Saudi officials say production operations at the sites have been temporarily suspended.

2:10 a.m.

Saudi Arabia’s energy minister has confirmed that attacks on its oil facilities Saturday knocked out about 50% of the country’s production and said it will make up for some of the loss with oil stocks.

In a statement released by the Saudi Press Agency, Prince Abdulaziz bin Salman bin Abdulaziz says explosions at Saudi Aramco’s Khurais and Abqaiq plants caused several fires that were controlled, but there were no injuries.

The minister says that according to preliminary estimates, 5.7 million barrels a day of oil production were lost, and the supply of ethane and natural gas also was cut by about half.

He says Aramco will provide updated information within 48 hours of restoring full production.

Prince Abdulaziz says the attacks were aimed not only at Saudi Arabia, but also at the world’s oil supply and its security.

1:20 a.m.

Secretary of State Mike Pompeo is blaming Iran for drone attacks Saturday against Saudi Arabia’s oil infrastructure.

The attacks, attributed to Iranian-backed Houthi rebels in Yemen, sparked huge fires at a vulnerable chokepoint for global energy supplies.

But in Saturday tweets, Pompeo says “there is no evidence the attacks came from Yemen” and points the finger at Tehran. He adds, “Iran has now launched an unprecedented attack on the world’s energy supply.”

The attacks come as Trump has held the door open for nuclear talks with Iranian President Hassan Rouhani and as Iran restarted some uranium enrichment in violation of the 2015 nuclear accord.


Pompeo says the U.S. calls on all nations to “condemn Iran’s attacks.”

He adds, “The United States will work with our partners and allies to ensure that energy markets remain well supplied and Iran is held accountable for its aggression.”

1:10 a.m.

President Donald Trump spoke Saturday with Saudi Crown Prince Mohammad Bin Salman “to offer his support” after Yemen’s Houthi rebels launched drone attacks against the Kingdom’s oil facilities.

The White House says in a statement that “The United States strongly condemns today’s attack on critical energy infrastructure.” The attacks sparked huge fires at a vulnerable chokepoint for global energy supplies.

Spokesman Judd Deere says the attacks by the Iranian-backed Houthis “only deepen conflict and mistrust.” He adds that the U.S. government is “committed to ensuring global oil markets are stable and well supplied.”

10:45 p.m.

Saudi Arabia’s Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman has received a telephone call from President Donald Trump in the wake of a Houthi rebel drone attack on Saudi oil facilities.

The Saudi Embassy in Washington says in a news release that Trump expressed his country’s readiness to cooperate with the kingdom in supporting its security and stability following the attack Saturday.

The drone attack hit the world’s largest oil processing facility and another major oil field Saturday, sparking huge fires at a vulnerable chokepoint for global energy supplies.

Trump said recent attacks against Saudi state-run oil facilities have had a negative impact on the U.S. and global economies.

The crown prince assured Trump that Saudi Arabia is “willing and able to confront and deal with this terrorist aggression,” according to the release.

8:10 p.m.

The U.N. special envoy for Yemen says he is “extremely concerned” about a drone attack claimed by Houthi rebels on two major oil installations in Saudi Arabia.

The drone attack hit the world’s largest oil processing facility and another major oil field Saturday, sparking huge fires at a vulnerable chokepoint for global energy supplies.

The attack likely will heighten tensions further across the wider Persian Gulf amid a confrontation between the U.S. and Iran over its unraveling nuclear deal with world powers.

Martin Griffiths urged all parties to “prevent such further incidents, which pose a serious threat to regional security, complicate the already fragile situation and jeopardize UN-led political

12:50 p.m.

A military spokesman for Yemen’s Houthi rebels has claimed a drone attack on two major oil installations in Saudi Arabia.

Yahia Sarie made the announcement Saturday in a televised address carried by the Houthi’s Al-Masirah satellite news channel.

He said the Houthis sent 10 drones to attack an oil processing facility in Buqyaq and the Khurais oil field.

He warned attacks by the rebels against the kingdom would only get worse if the war in Yemen continues.

Sarie said: “The only option for the Saudi government is to stop attacking us.”

A Saudi-led coalition has been battling the rebels since March 2015.

9:10 a.m.

Saudi Arabia says drones attacked two major oil facilities in the kingdom, sparking fires.

The kingdom did not say who was behind the attacks Saturday. Yemen’s Houthi rebels have launched similar attacks, but did not immediately claim the latest assaults.

The ministry said investigations were ongoing.

One attack struck a major oil facility in Buqyaq, which is near Dammam in the kingdom’s Eastern Province. Online videos apparently from the area showed a massive blaze on the horizon, with the apparent sound of gunfire in the background.

The ministry identified the other area targeted as its Khurais oil field.

6:55 a.m.

A Saudi-owned satellite news channel is reporting an explosion and fire at a Saudi Aramco facility in the kingdom’s east, without offering a cause for the blaze.

The Dubai-based broadcaster Al-Arabiya reported the fire early Saturday morning in Buqyaq, which is near Dammam in the kingdom’s Eastern Province.

The channel did not elaborate.

Online videos showed a massive blaze on the horizon, with the apparent sound of gunfire in the background.

State media in Saudi Arabia did not immediately report on the incident. Requests for comment to Aramco and officials in the kingdom were not immediately acknowledged.

Saudi Arabia: Drone Attacks Knocked Out Half Its Oil Supply

In this image made from a video broadcast on the Saudi-owned Al-Arabiya satellite news channel on Saturday, Sept. 14, 2019, smoke from a fire at the Abqaiq oil processing facility can be seen in Buqyaq, Saudi Arabia. Drones launched by Yemen's Houthi rebels attacked the world's largest oil processing facility in Saudi Arabia and another major oilfield Saturday, sparking huge fires at a vulnerable chokepoint for global energy supplies. (Al-Arabiya via AP) TV OUT NO SALES

BY JON GAMBRELL

DUBAI, UNITED ARAB EMIRATES (AP) — 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 assaults 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 unraveling 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. The fires “were controlled,” the statement said, and no workers were injured.

The fires led to the interruption of an estimated 5.7 million barrels in crude supplies, according to the statement, which said part of that would be offset with stockpiles. The statement said Saudi Aramco, the state-owned oil giant, would provide updated information in the next 48 hours.

The Iranian-backed Houthis, who hold Yemen’s capital, Sanaa, and other territory in the Arab world’s poorest country, took responsibility for the attacks in the war against a Saudi-led coalition that has fought since 2015 to reinstate the internationally recognized Yemeni government. But the U.S. blamed Iran, with Secretary of State Mike Pompeo tweeting, “There is no evidence the attacks came from Yemen.”

“Iran has now launched an unprecedented attack on the world’s energy supply,” Pompeo added.

In a short address aired by the Houthi’s Al-Masirah satellite news channel, military spokesman Yahia Sarie said the rebels launched 10 drones after receiving “intelligence” support from those inside the kingdom. He warned that attacks by the rebels would only get worse if the war continues.

“The only option for the Saudi government is to stop attacking us,” Sarie said.

Houthi rebels have been using drones in combat since the start of the Saudi-led war. The first appeared to be off-the-shelf, hobby-kit-style drones. Later, versions nearly identical to Iranian models turned up. Iran denies supplying the Houthis with weapons, although the U.N., the West and Gulf Arab nations say Tehran does.

U.N. investigators said the Houthis’ new UAV-X drone likely has a range of up to 1,500 kilometers (930 miles). That puts the far reaches of both Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates in range.

First word of Saturday’s assault came in online videos of giant fires at the Abqaiq facility, some 330 kilometers (205 miles) northeast of the Saudi capital, Riyadh. Machine-gun fire could be heard in several clips alongside the day’s first Muslim call to prayers, suggesting security forces tried to bring down the drones just before dawn. In daylight, Saudi state television aired a segment with its local correspondent near a police checkpoint, a thick plume of smoke visible behind him.

President Donald Trump called Saudi Arabia’s Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman to offer his support for the kingdom’s defense, the White House said. The crown prince assured Trump that Saudi Arabia is “willing and able to confront and deal with this terrorist aggression,” according to a news release from the Saudi Embassy in Washington.

Saudi Aramco describes its Abqaiq oil processing facility in Buqyaq as “the largest crude oil stabilization plant in the world.”

The facility processes sour crude oil into sweet crude, then transports it onto transshipment points on the Persian Gulf and the Red Sea or to refineries for local production. Estimates suggest it can process up to 7 million barrels of crude oil a day. By comparison, Saudi Arabia produced 9.65 million barrels of crude oil a day in July.

“This is one of the biggest central processing facilities in the world. The Iran conflict is going to be hitting the world in a new way,” said Kevin Book, managing director, research at ClearView Energy Partners LLC.

The Khurais oil field is believed to produce over 1 million barrels of crude oil a day. It has estimated reserves of over 20 billion barrels of oil, according to Aramco.

There was no immediate impact on global oil prices as markets were closed for the weekend. Benchmark Brent crude had been trading at just above $60 a barrel.

While Saudi Arabia has taken steps to protect itself and its oil infrastructure, analysts had warned that Abqaiq remained vulnerable. The Rapidan Energy Group, a Washington-based advisory group, warned in May that “a successful attack could lead to a monthslong disruption of most Saudi production and nearly all spare production.” It called Abqaiq, close to the eastern Saudi city of Dammam, “the most important oil facility in the world.”

In a report published Saturday, Helima Croft, global head of commodity strategy at RBC Capital Markets, noted that although Aramco officials have indicated that exports will resume in the next few days, “there is nothing to suggest that this is a one-off event and that the Iranian-backed Houthi rebels will forgo further strikes on Saudi sites.”

The war has become the world’s worst humanitarian crisis. The violence has pushed Yemen to the brink of famine and killed more than 90,000 people since 2015, according to the U.S.-based Armed Conflict Location & Event Data Project, or ACLED, which tracks the conflict.

The rebels have flown drones into the radar arrays of Saudi Arabia’s Patriot missile batteries, according to Conflict Armament Research, disabling them and allowing the Houthis to fire ballistic missiles into the kingdom unchallenged. The Houthis launched drone attacks targeting Saudi Arabia’s crucial East-West Pipeline in May. In August, Houthi drones struck Saudi Arabia’s Shaybah oil field.

Associated Press writers Samy Magdy in Cairo and Anne D’Innocenzio in New York contributed to this report.

Trending: 23 Nigerians Waiting For Saudi Hangmen (Full List)

BY PM NEWS

SUNDAY, AUGUST 25, 2010

Trending right now in Nigeria is the list of 23 Nigerians said to be on death row in Saudi Arabia over drug-related offences. They were arrested between 2016 and 2017 at King Abdul-Aziz International Airport, Jeddah, and Prince Muhammad Bin Abdu-Aziz International Airport, Madinah.

The list was first published in April after the execution of Nigerian widow, Kudirat Afolabi, who had brought into Saudi Arabia, a prohibited drug.

The list, comprising mainly Yoruba and some few Hausa/Fulani people, all muslims, was exhumed on Sunday by some Twitterati to show that crime is not limited to a particular ethnic group in Nigeria.

The list #23Nigerians was the number one trending topic on Nigerian Twitter, supplanting #Igboyahooboys, which emerged after the FBI released on Thursday the list of almost 80 Nigerians, indicted for wire fraud, romance scams and Business email compromise crimes. Later another hashtag, #yorubadrugdealers emerged.

Commenters on Sunday bemoaned how the Nigerians, from the Yoruba and Igbo ethnic groups, are destroying the national reputation, internationally.

Some commenters even wondered why Nigerians would risk taking drugs to Saudi Arabia, when they knew the consequences, if caught.

The Saudi Arabian Government said back in April that the 23 suspects concealed the narcotic substance in their rectum, an act the Saudi Government says contravenes its narcotic and psychotropic substances rules.

The offence is punishable by death. Back in April then, Saheed Sobade, another Nigerian was also awaiting execution.

“It is well-known for all those interested in travelling to the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia that the penalty for drug trafficking is the death sentence and the said sentence is applied on all persons convicted without any exceptions, as long as the evidence is established against them, and this is conveyed to every person prior to his trip to the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia,” the Royal Embassy of Saudi Arabia said in April, after Nigerians criticised the killing of Afolabi.

See the full list of Nigerians arrested for drug trafficking:

Adeniyi Adebayo Zikri, Tunde Ibrahim, Jimoh Idhola Lawal, Lolo Babatunde, Sulaiman Babatunde, Idris Adewuumi Adepoju, Abdul Raimi Awela Ajibola, Yusuf Makeen Ajiboye, Adam Idrid Abubakar, Saka Zakaria, Biola Lawal, Isa Abubakar Adam, Ibrahim Chiroma, Hafis Amosu, Aliu Muhammad, Funmilayo Omoyemi Bishi, Mistura Yekini, Amina Ajoke Alobi, Kuburat Ibrahim, Alaja Olufunke Alalaoe Abdulquadir, Fawsat Balagun Alabi, Aisha Muhammad Amira, Adebayo Zakariya,

The Saudis have not said whether the trial of the 23 suspects have been concluded and whether they will all face the death penalty. Their last word on the matter was published in April.