A Huthi rebel fighter inspects the damage after a reported airstrike carried out by the Saudi-led coalition targeted the presidential palace in the Yemeni capital Sanaa on Tuesday. Saudi-led warplanes pounded the rebel-held capital before dawn after the rebels killed former president Ali Abdullah Saleh as he fled the city following the collapse of their uneasy alliance. Photo: AFP

Huthi rebels launched multiple attacks into southern Saudi Arabia Saturday, including one on a facility run by oil company Aramco in Jizan, the Saudi-led coalition fighting the rebels in Yemen said in a statement.

Quoted by the Saudi Press Agency (SPA), the coalition said that four drones had been launched into the region, which is regularly targeted by Huthi drone and missile attacks. 
There was no loss of life, it said. 

As well as the Aramco facility, the rebels also hit a desalination plant in Al-Shaqeeq. 

In later statements, the coalition announced that the Dhahran al-Janoub power station near Jizan had also been attacked - with the SPA posting photos and a video clip showing firefighters tackling a blaze at the site.

The fourth target was a gas station in Khamis Mushait. The drones were intercepted and destroyed near Yemen after the attacks, with a ballistic missile fired towards the city of Jizan also stopped, the coalition said.

The latest round of attacks comes after an oil refinery in the Saudi capital Riyadh was targeted on March 10 by a drone, an operation claimed by the Huthis.

Earlier this week, the Huthis rejected an invitation from the six-nation Gulf Cooperation Council to attend talks on the Yemen conflict, to be held in Riyadh from March 29.

Saudi Arabia is leading a military coalition in Yemen in support of the internationally recognized government, which has been engaged in a bloody conflict against the Huthis since mid-2014.

The war has cost hundreds of thousands of lives, directly or indirectly, and displaced millions, in what the United Nations has called the world's worst humanitarian crisis.

On Wednesday, the UN voiced disappointment after a donors' conference raised $1.3 billion, far short of the $4.27 billion target.

AFP