The U.S. has transferred a significant number of Patriot antimissile interceptors to Saudi Arabia in recent weeks as the Biden administration looks to ease what has been a point of tension in the increasingly complicated U.S.-Saudi relationship.

A senior administration official confirmed Sunday night that the interceptors have been sent to Saudi Arabia. The official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss a decision that has not been formally announced, said the decision was in line with President Joe Biden's promise that "America will have the backs of our friends in the region."

Algeria recalled its ambassador from Madrid on Saturday in protest at Spain's decision to back a Moroccan autonomy plan for the disputed former Spanish colony of Western Sahara.

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 reducing oil production at one site in the latest escalation as peace talks stall and the war in Yemen rages into its eighth year.

The attacks did not cause casualties, the Saudi-led military coalition fighting in Yemen said, but damaged civilian vehicles and homes in the area. A Saudi energy official later acknowledged that a drone strike targeting the Yanbu Aramco Sinopec Refining Company on the Red Sea coast caused "a temporary reduction in the refinery's production."

Yemen's Sira Fortress withstood attacks by the Portuguese and the Turks, but years of war have left the 11th century citadel in disrepair, defaced by graffiti and littered with rubbish.   

Israel on Friday appealed to the United States not to remove Iran's Revolutionary Guards from its blacklist of foreign terrorist organizations as part of a revived nuclear deal.

When 28-year-old Syrian Omar Alshakal saw the exodus of desperate people fleeing Russia's invasion of Ukraine, he knew first hand what they were going through -- and starting thinking of ways to help.

Five-year-old Amina Nasser hugs her toys in a decrepit cancer ward in Yemen, her life in the hands of a healthcare system pushed to the brink of collapse by grinding conflict.

Yemen's Huthi rebels are not prepared to hold talks with the government in Saudi Arabia or other "enemy countries", an official said Thursday, after a proposal to meet in Riyadh.

The Iran-backed rebels said they were open to finding a peaceful solution to the seven-year war but baulked at travelling to Saudi Arabia, which leads a military coalition fighting on the side of the government.

The United Nations' political chief warned Wednesday that Libya could again see two rival administrations and a return to instability, calling for elections as soon as possible to unify the oil-rich North African nation.

Undersecretary-General Rosemary DiCarlo told the U.N. Security Council she is encouraged by support for a U.N. initiative to convene a joint committee from Libya's rival House of Representatives and High State Council with a goal of reaching agreement by both bodies "on a constitutional basis that would lead to elections this year."

The al-Astal family in the Gaza Strip is once again confronting the horrors of war — air raids, food shortages, power cuts, frantic phone calls. But this time, they are on the outside looking in.

They are among dozens of Palestinian-Ukrainian families in the isolated territory who have experienced several wars firsthand — the most recent last May — and are now watching another unfold in Ukraine, where many of them have loved ones.