Saudi air defences intercepted a "ballistic missile" fired by Yemeni rebels at the kingdom's southern coastal city of Jizan, the Saudi-led coalition fighting the rebels said.

It was the latest in a series of such attacks.

"Saudi air defences intercepted a ballistic missile launched by the Huthi militias targeting Jizan," the coalition said in a statement.

The Huthis, in a statement on their news outlet Al-Masirah, claimed that they fired a "Badr 1" ballistic missile and said it struck Jizan Regional Airport.

AFP was unable to reach the airport for comment, but open-source flight information appeared to show flights arriving and departing on time.

Saudi Arabia has since March 2015 led a coalition of Arab states fighting to roll back the Huthi rebels in Yemen and restore its neighbour's internationally-recognised government to power.

Nearly 10,000 people have since been killed in the conflict, in what the United Nations has called the world's worst humanitarian crisis.

In March, an Egyptian labourer became the first known fatality in a rebel missile attack on the Saudi capital.

Saudi Arabia accuses its rival Iran of smuggling missiles to the Huthis -- a charge Tehran denies.

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Pentagon awards $67.8M contract for Ballistic Missile Defense System
Washington DC (UPI) Apr 19, 2018
MacAulay-Brown Inc. has been awarded a contract by the Missile Defense Agency for development and services to support the Ballistic Missile Defense System. The deal, announced Wednesday by the Department of Defense, is valued at more than $67.8 million under a competitive cost-plus-fixed-fee level of effort contract. The contract enables to MacAulay-Brown Inc., out of Dayton, Ohio, to provide "agency advisory and analytical support in support of technical, engineering, advisory and manag ... read more