SANAA, Sept. 23 (Xinhua) -- Yemen's Shiite Houthi rebels said on Saturday that they fired a ballistic missile toward a military airbase in a Saudi Arabian border city.
The missile targeted King Khaled airbase in Khamis Mushait in the southwestern Saudi province of Asir, the Houthis said in a statement carried by the Houthi-controlled Saba News Agency,
But, the Saudi-run Al Arabiya satellite TV channel reported that the the Saudi Air Defense Force intercepted the missile over Khamis Mushait and bombarded its launch pad inside Yemen.
Houthis have been targeting Saudi-border cities since the beginning of the war in Yemen.
On July 27, Saudi Arabia said it intercepted a missile launched by Houthi militias toward the Muslim holy city of Mecca.
In March 2015, the Saudi-led coalition intervened in the Yemeni conflict to back internationally recognized government of President Abd-Rabbu Mansour Hadi against Iranian-backed Houthis, who invaded the Yemeni capital of Sanaa, and seized most of the country's northern provinces.
More than 10,000 Yemenis, mostly civilians, have been killed in the war that also displaced over 3 million others, according to UN agencies.
Yemen has also been hit by a deadly cholera epidemic and is on the brink of mass famine.
