Child killed in missile attack on Saudi border village

A child was killed and three others injured in the southern Saudi province of Dhahran after a missile attack from Yemen, a Saudi security official said on Friday.

Mohamed al-Asmi, the spokesman for the Saudi Civil Defence in the southwestern Asir region, was quoted by the official Saudi press agency as saying that al-Hisn, a village of the southern province, was attacked by missiles from Yemen.

He did not, however, mention whether the victims were Saudi nationals.

A Saudi border guard was killed by shrapnel from a missile that was fired from Yemen on Wednesday.

Yemen has been pounded by airstrikes since 25 March by a Saudi Arabia-led coalition established to fight Yemen's formidable Shiite Houthi militia which overthrew the Yemeni government and took over the capital Sanna.

The United Nations said on Tuesday that the conflict in Yemen had killed at least 646 civilians since Saudi-coalition air strikes began, including 131 children. More than 1,364 civilians have been wounded.

About 20 million people, or 80% of the population, are estimated to be going hungry, the UN has said. 

Saudi Arabia says it launched its campaign in response to appeals by Yemen's embattled president, Abd Rabbuh Mansour Hadi, for help against the Houthi militia.

Huge blasts outside Sanaa after coalition air raids

Meanwhile, huge explosions rocked the outskirts of the Yemeni capital on Friday after Saudi-led air strikes against positions held by Houthi militiamen and their allies, residents said.

Saudi shells hit an international aid office in Yemen on Thursday killing five Ethiopian refugees, a local official said, while violence across the country put United Nations-led peace talks in doubt.

The official said that 10 other refugees were wounded when artillery fire and air strikes hit the town of Maydee along Yemen's border with Saudi Arabia in Hajja province, a stronghold of the Iran-allied Houthi rebel group that a Saudi-led Arab alliance has been bombing for eight weeks.

Saudi spokesman Brigadier General Ahmed Asseri denied Saudi involvement and blamed the Houthis. "If the report is correct, it would be the responsibility of the Houthis, who have a big presence in the area," Asseri told Reuters by telephone.

Saudi Arabia has previously denied responsibility for civilian deaths in remote northern areas that residents and local officials ascribed to Saudi fire.

Fierce fighting in South Yemen

In southern Yemen, at least 19 fighters were killed in airstrikes and in clashes on the ground, security sources said.

"It was a morning of terror," a resident of a southern suburb of Sanaa told AFP after a string of raids on military bases in the Dhabwa and Rimat Hamid areas.

In north Sanaa, coalition warplanes attacked a stadium and a camp of the Republican Guards loyal to ousted president Ali Abdullah Saleh, who has sided with the Houthis.

Other targets included another camp, in Samaa, and Dalaimi air base, near the capital's international airport, witnesses said.

Residents said the coalition also struck Houthi positions in Marib province to the east of Sanaa, but no immediate casualty tolls were available for any of the raids.

Eight Houthis were killed in air raids on Aden, while another eight died in street fighting in the southern port city against pro-Hadi fighters, who also lost three men.

A United Nations conference to relaunch political talks on Yemen is to open in Geneva next week, despite uncertainty over who will attend.