Houthi
© AP Photo / Hani Mohammed
A military spokesman for Yemen's Houthi militants said Sunday that the group targeted Riyadh and several southern Saudi cities with drones and rockets overnight, Houthi media reported.

The spokesman was quoted as saying by the Almasirah news channel that Saturday night attacks aimed at "sensitive sites" in the capital as well as at military and economic targets in Jazan, Najran and Asir.

The attacks were launched in retaliation for air strikes by the Saudi-led military coalition on Houthi positions in Yemen's capital Sana and areas close to the southern Saudi border.

Cross-border violence comes despite a call by the UN chief on Thursday to cease fire amid the deadly coronavirus pandemic. The internationally recognised Yemeni government and its Saudi supporters reportedly backed the proposal as did the Houthis.

A Saudi-led coalition of mostly Arab states has conducted military operations in support of Yemeni President Abdrabuh Mansour Hadi against the Houthi movement since 2015.

Saudi military officials said that two missiles fired toward civilian targets in the early hours of Sunday morning had been intercepted and that there were no reported injuries or deaths, according to the Saudi state-run SPA news agency.

Twitter users shared video of what is claimed to be debris left behind of an interceptor missile after an attack against against Riyadh and Jizan. Earlier, ​Colonel Turki al-Malki, a Saudi-led coalition spokesman, confirmed the interception of the missiles, and said that the rocket interceptions "caused some shrapnel due to the destruction of the two missiles".