SANAA, Oct. 4 (Xinhua) -- Yemen's Houthi group said Sunday it launched ballistic missiles and drones at two Saudi Aramco facilities, including the Khurais oil complex southeast of Riyadh, marking a fresh escalation in the rapidly intensifying cross-border hostilities between the two sides.

Houthi military spokesperson Yahya Sarea said in a statement broadcast by the Houthi-run al-Masirah TV that the group carried out two separate operations using "a number of ballistic missiles and drones."

Sarea said one operation targeted an Aramco facility in Riyadh and the other struck the company's oil facilities in Khurais, southeast of the Saudi capital, claiming both attacks "achieved their objectives" with precise hits that caused large fires.

The claims could not be independently verified. There was no immediate comment from Saudi authorities or Saudi Aramco on the latest Houthi announcement.

Sarea said Sunday's operations came in response to what the Houthis described as continued Saudi air and missile attacks on areas under the group's control in Yemen.

He claimed that 50 Saudi air and missile strikes had hit Sanaa and the provinces of Al-Jawf, Taiz, Amran, Hajjah and Saada over the previous 12 hours, bringing the total number of such strikes since the latest escalation began to 1,460.

The strikes came as Yemen's conflict entered one of its sharpest escalations in years, with heavy fighting spreading across southwestern Yemen and renewed missile, drone and air attacks reviving direct hostilities between the Houthis and Saudi Arabia.

Yemen's conflict began in late 2014 when the Houthis seized the capital Sanaa and much of northern Yemen, prompting a Saudi-led coalition to intervene in March 2015 in support of the internationally recognized Yemeni government. ■

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