A Saudi-led coalition battling Yemen’s Houthi rebels said it had intercepted a missile fired from the neighbouring country towards the kingdom’s capital — Riyadh, reported Al Jazeera.

Houthi rebels said on Tuesday they had launched a ballistic missile targeting Al Yamama royal palace to mark 1,000 days since the coalition started its bombing campaign in Yemen.

“This is our answer to them and to the whole world,” Abdulmalik Al Houthi, the rebels’ leader, said in a televised address.

“The more crimes you perpetrate, the more tyrannical you’re, you’ll meet nothing but more missiles,” he said.

The Iranian-backed Houthi militants said they had targeted a meeting of top Saudi officials at the Al Yamamah palace, the official residence of King Salman and headquarters of the royal court, according to Bloomberg.

“You’re hitting Sana’a and we’re hitting Riyadh and Abu Dhabi,” Al Houthi said. “You’re attacking the republican palace in Sana’a and our ballistic missiles reach Al Yamamah palace in Riyadh. You’re targeting our vital installations and we’ll do that.” A separate Houthi statement said Saudi military and oil installations were also “within our missiles’ reach.”

US officials at the Pentagon confirmed to Fox News Saudi Arabia’s report that the Houthi missile was shot down successfully.

“While we don’t yet have sufficient insight into this particular attack, it bears all the hallmarks of previous attacks using Iranian-provided weapons. It’s only a matter of time before one of these missiles hits the target. If we don’t do something, we’ll miss the opportunity to prevent further violence from Iran,” US Ambassador Nikki Haley told the UN Security Council on Tuesday.

Saudi state TV broadcast the announcement by the coalition as people who lived in the area posted videos on social media showing a small cloud of smoke in the sky.

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This is the second missile attack fired by the Houthis to target Saudi Arabia’s capital city since November 4.

The Houthi rebels said they had fired a Burkan 2-H missile — a Scud-type missile with a range of more than 800km — from Yemen’s Saada region towards Riyadh.

The Saudi-led coalition retaliated with more air raids in the southern part of Yemen’s Houthi-controlled capital, Sanaa.