Yemen's Houthi rebels claimed they hit a military target in the King Khalid Airbase in Saudi Arabia's southwestern city of Khamis Mushait with a bomb-laden drone before dawn on Thursday.

"The attack was precise," Houthi military spokesman Yehya Sarea said in a statement aired by the rebel group's al-Masirah TV.

Meanwhile, Saudi-owned Al Arabiya TV reported that the Saudi-led coalition forces intercepted a drone attack that the Houthi militia launched from Yemen to Khamis Mushait.

Cross-border missile and drone attacks by the Iran-backed Houthis have escalated since February when the group began a major offensive against the Saudi-backed Yemeni government army to capture the oil-rich province of Marib in central Yemen.

Yemen has been mired in a civil war since late 2014 when the Houthi militia seized control of several northern provinces and forced the internationally recognized government of President Abd-Rabbu Mansour Hadi out of the capital Sanaa.

The Saudi-led Arab coalition intervened in the Yemeni conflict in March 2015 to support Hadi's government.