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 In the first use of the long range ballistic Scud in the conflict,
the missile was fired early Saturday morning at the city of Khamees
Mushait in the kingdom's southwest and was intercepted by two
Patriot missiles, a statement by the Saudi military said.
The area is home to the largest air force base in southern Saudi
Arabia, the world's top oil exporter, but there are no oil
facilities in the vicinity.
Al Masira, the Houthi group's official channel, confirmed the launch
and said it targeted the Prince Khaled air base.
An alliance of Gulf Arab nations has been bombing Yemen's Houthi
militia and allied army units loyal to powerful ex-President Ali
Abdullah Saleh since March 26 in an attempt to restore exiled
President Abd-Rabbu Mansour Hadi to power.
The coalition has said a main goal of its war effort is to
neutralize the threat that rockets in Yemen pose to Saudi Arabia and
its neighbors.
A Saudi spokesman for the coalition said in April that the alliance
had succeeded in removing the threat of heavy weapons to the Kingdom
and its neighbors, but the air war and border clashes have
persisted.
 The Sunni Muslim coalition states also fear the Houthis, hailing
from a Shi'ite sect in Yemen's far north, will act as a proxy for
the influence of their arch-rival, Shi'ite Iran, in the Arabian
Peninsula.
Iran and the Houthis deny any military or economic links, and the
Houthis say their seizure of the capital Sanaa in September and
their advance southward is part of a revolution against a corrupt
government.
BORDER BATTLE
Arab air strikes have pounded arms and missile stores in the capital
Sanaa and other military bases in Yemen almost every day, but the
firing of the Scud -- an 11-metre (35-foot) long ballistic missile
with ranges of 300 km (200 miles) and more -- shows the country's
supply has not yet been eliminated.
Saleh, Yemen's autocrat president from 1978 to 2012, was forced to
step down amid Arab Spring street protests but retains most of the
army's loyalty and has joined forces with the Houthis in combat with
Hadi's armed backers in Yemen's south.
Saudi-owned Al Arabiya TV described overnight ground fighting along
the border as the "largest attack" yet by Houthi forces and Yemen's
republican guard, a unit close to Saleh.
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"It was the first confrontation undertaken by Saleh's (Republican)
guard, and coalition planes and Saudi Apache (helicopters) undertook
ground fire for 10 hours," said Al Arabiya's correspondent in the
southern Jizan region.
Hamed al-Bukhaiti, a Houthi spokesman, indicated that the group had
embarked on an escalation along the border.
"We've only just begun, and next time will be stronger," he said on
his twitter page.
The options are open and the battle has begun to block the
aggression on Yemen ... this is the battle the people of Yemen have
been awaiting," he wrote.
Saudi-led forces said on Friday that four Saudi troops, including an
officer, were killed after an attack was launched from the Yemeni
side on border areas in Jizan and Najran.
Residents in the southern city of Aden said heavy artillery battles
resumed after a pause of several days on Saturday, in clashes which
killed around 10 Houthi fighters and three pro-Hadi militiamen.
Eyewitnesses said around 10 Arab air strikes pounded Houthi
positions in Aden's northwest suburbs on Saturday morning.
The violence comes despite progress toward United Nations-backed
peace talks planned for Geneva this month, to which both the exiled
government and the Houthis have agreed.
(Additional reporting by Mostafa Hashem; Editing by Mark Potter and
William Hardy)
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