Saudi coalition hits Houthi camp in Yemen's Sanaa as air strikes ramp up

The Saudi-led coalition fighting in Yemen says it has struck a Houthi camp in the capital Sanaa.

The coalition, which backs Yemen's internationally recognised government against the Houthis in a civil war, said it destroyed weapons storehouses in the Houthi-held capital, according to the official Saudi Press Agency (SPA) on Sunday.

"The operation in Sanaa was an immediate response to an attempt to transfer weapons from Al Tashrifat camp in Sanaa," it said in a statement, adding it "destroyed weapons warehouses".

The coalition launched a "large-scale" military operation against the Houthis on Saturday, the Saudi authorities said, after missiles fired by the group killed two people in the kingdom, the first such deaths in three years.

Those air raids left dead three civilians, including a child and a woman, Yemeni medics told AFP news agency.

The coalition is scheduled to hold a news conference later on Sunday at which it has said it will show evidence of involvement by Lebanon's Iran-backed Hezbollah in the Yemeni conflict.

It said it will present during Sunday's news conference "evidence of involvement of Lebanon's terrorist Hezbollah in Yemen and use of (Sanaa) airport to target the kingdom", according to SPA.

READ MORE: Why is there a war in Yemen?

Protracted conflict

Saudi Arabia has long accused Iran of supplying the Houthis with sophisticated weapons and its Hezbollah proxy of training the fighters, charges the Islamic republic denies.

Yemen has been wracked by civil war since 2014, pitting the government against the Houthis who control much of the north.

Tens of thousands of people have been killed, in what the United Nations has described as the world's worst humanitarian crisis.

The coalition maintains its operations are carried out in accordance with international humanitarian law, repeatedly urging the Houthis against using civilians as human shields.

The coalition has intensified its airstrikes on Sanaa, targeting earlier this week the airport, whose operations have largely ceased because of a Saudi-led blockade since August 2016, with exemptions for aid flights.

READ MORE: US reviews support for Saudi coalition after Yemen carnage

Meanwhile, the fighters often launch missiles and drones into Saudi Arabia, targeting its airports and oil infrastructure.

The UN estimates Yemen's war will have claimed 377,000 lives by the end of the year through both direct and indirect impacts.