SANAA, March 29 (Xinhua) -- Yemen's Houthi militias on Sunday claimed responsibility for cross-border botched attacks on Saudi Arabia.
The militias' military spokesman said on the group al-Masirah television that missile and drone attacks hit "sensitive targets" in Riyadh, Jizan and Najran, without giving further details.
Earlier in the day, the Saudi Press Agency (SPA) said the Saudi air defences intercepted and destroyed two ballistic missiles launched by the Iran-backed Houthi militias in Yemen toward "civilian targets" in Riyadh and Jizan on Saturday night.
Sophisticated weapons have been smuggled into the militias in Yemen over the past five years of the conflict, some of which were intercepted and confiscated by the Yemeni government and the Saudi-led coalition forces.
The escalation came days after the Houthis welcomed a call by United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres for a cease-fire between the Yemeni rival parties.
Guterres called on the Yemeni warring parties to focus on reaching a negotiated political settlement and do everything possible to counter a potential outbreak of COVID-19.
Yemen has been mired in a civil war since late 2014, when the Iran-backed Houthi group seized control of much of the country's north and forced the Saudi-backed government of President Abd-Rabbu Mansour Hadi out of the capital Sanaa.
The Saudi-led military coalition intervened in the Yemeni conflict on March 26, 2015 to support Hadi's internationally-recognized government.
