Yemen's Houthi rebels said they hit the King Khalid Air Base in Saudi Arabia's southwestern border city of Khamis Mushait with a bomb-laden drone before dawn on Sunday.

"The hit was accurate," Houthi spokesman Yehya Sarea said in a statement aired by the group's al-Masirah TV.

Meanwhile, Saudi-owned Al-Arabiya TV said the Saudi-led coalition forces intercepted and destroyed an armed drone that the Houthis launched towards 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 coalition-backed Yemeni government army to capture the oil-rich province of Marib in central Yemen.

The Houthi television on Saturday night reported "24 airstrikes by the Saudi-led coalition" on battlefields west of Marib, without providing more details.

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.