SANAA - Yemen’s Houthi rebels fired a short-range ballistic missile toward a military camp in southern Saudi border region of Najran on Friday, hours after Saudi-led coalition airstrikes hit an airport in the rebel-held capital Sanaa, the Shiite rebels said in a statement.

“The Badr-1-P missile targeted the camp in Buko desert on Friday morning in retaliation to overnight airstrikes by the Saudi-led coalition warplanes that hit Sanaa International Airport,” according to the statement carried by the rebel-controlled Saba news agency.

The statement said the missile hit the target accurately.

More than 30 airstrikes hit the Sanaa airport on Friday pre-dawn, according to Saba. Residents in Sanaa reported dozens of airstrikes overnight in and around the airport that made the whole city quake.

Saudi-owned Al Arabiya television quoted coalition spokesman Turki al-Maliki as saying that Friday’s airstrikes targeted ballistic missiles’ launchpads in the Sanaa airport.

There was no comment yet from Saudi Arabia on the rebel missile attack.

Buko is a shared Saudi-Yemeni border crossing area bordering the Yemeni northern province of Saada, which is the main stronghold of the Yemeni rebels.

Buko has been under control of the Saudi border forces since 2016, after the Saudi troops defeated the Yemeni rebels and forced them to retreat back to Saada few months after the war erupted in early 2015.

The attack was the latest attempt by the Houthis in response to the Saudi-led airstrikes. Most of the missiles had been intercepted and destroyed in the air.

Saudi Arabia is leading an Arab military coalition that intervened in Yemen in March 2015 to support the government of President Abd-Rabbu Mansour Hadi after the Houthi rebels forced him into exile.

The fresh military escalation came ahead of a new UN-proposed round of peace talks.