Saudi intercepts 'Iran' missile

A ballistic missile fired by Yemen's armed Houthi group at Saudi Arabia was shot down on Thursday near the south-western city of Khamis Mushait, the Saudi-owned al-Arabiya channel reported.

It was the second ballistic missile fired from Yemen this month, after an earlier rocket was brought down near King Khaled Airport on the northern outskirts of the capital Riyadh.

A Saudi-led coalition fighting the Houthis in Yemen has closed air, land and sea access in a move it says is meant to stop a flow of Iranian arms to the Houthis, who control much of northern Yemen.

The blockade has cut food imports to seven million people on the brink of famine.

"Air defence intercepted a ballistic missile, fired by the Houthis towards Khamis Mushait," Arabiya said on its Twitter account, without giving details. No causalities were reported.

The Houthis and allied militias loyal to former Yemeni President Ali Abdullah Saleh said on their official news agency they had launched a mid-range ballistic missile that "hit its military target with high precision".

Meanwhile, remnants of four ballistic missiles fired into Saudi Arabia by Houthi rebels this year appear to have been designed and manufactured by Riyadh's regional rival Iran, a confidential report by United Nations sanctions monitors said, bolstering a push by the United States to punish the Tehran government.

Earlier this month, US Ambassador to the United Nations Nikki Haley accused Iran of supplying Houthi rebels with a missile that was fired into Saudi Arabia in July and called for the United Nations to hold Tehran accountable for violating two UN Security Council resolutions.