Houthis target Saudi warship 'Al-Dammam' off Yemen coast

Yemen's Houthi rebels have targeted a Saudi warship off the western coast of Yemen, a television station aligned with the group said on Wednesday.

"The naval force targets the Saudi Al-Dammam ship," Al-Masirah TV wrote on its Twitter feed.

Al-Dammam is reportedly a French-made frigate, one of three owned by the Saudis.

There were no immediate reports of damage or casualties, or comment from the Saudi navy.

The Iranian-backed Houthi Shia rebels have fired dozens of rockets into Saudi Arabia. Most of them been intercepted by Saudi air defences or fallen without incident in the south of the kingdom.

Yemen has suffered huge human and material damage from a war which has pitted the Houthis against the Saudi-backed government of President Abd Rabbo Mansour Hadi.

The Houthis overran the capital Sanaa in March 2014, forcing the Yemen government to flee south and leading to intervention from a Saudi and UAE military force.

Air strikes from the Arab coalition are believed to have led to the majority of the 10,000 killed in the war.

Huge damage to infrastructure has also worsened the humanitarian situation in the country, with mass starvation and disease epidemics threatening to kill tens of thousands.