RIYADH

Saudi air defenses on Wednesday shot down a drone launched by Houthi rebels from Yemen, according to a spokesman for the Saudi-led coalition.  

"The drone was intercepted over [Yemen's] Hajjah province before entering the Saudi airspace," Colonel Turki Al-Malki said in a statement cited by the official SPA news agency.  

Last month, Riyadh accused Houthi rebels of carrying out drone attacks on two oil-pumping stations on the East-West pipeline, which carries Saudi oil from the eastern province to the port in the western coast.  

In 2015, Saudi Arabia and a group of Arab allies -- who accuse the Houthis of serving as an Iranian proxy -- launched a massive military campaign against the rebels, who overran much of Yemen, including the capital Sanaa a year earlier. 

The ongoing violence has devastated Yemen’s basic infrastructure, prompting the UN to describe the situation as “one of the worst humanitarian disasters of modern times”.