Explosions shake Yemen's Sanaa after Saudi coalition strikes 'legitimate military targets'

Explosions shook Yemen's capital, Sanaa, early on Tuesday after a significant number of air raids were launched by the Saudi-led coalition forces fighting in the country.

The coalition claimed the strikes were against "legitimate military targets" in the capital, which has been controlled by the Houthi rebels since 2014, according to the official Saudi Press Agency on Twitter.

Loud explosions were heard near Sanaa Airport and in the city's northern suburbs, residents told The New Arab's Arabic sister service, Al-Araby Al-Jadeed.

It comes just hours after claims by the coalition that the capital's international airport was being used as a military outpost by Iran and the Houthis to target Saudi territory, according to media.

The coalition alleged that the rebels are endangering the lives of UN personnel there, alleging the rebels used a UN plane to check if air defences were working correctly.

In a coalition release carried by the Saudi Press Agency, civilians were told to avoid the areas in question and avoid crowds.

Soon after, the coalition said it had destroyed a "high-value" site in Sanaa for ballistic missiles and claimed the rebels were using hospitals and civilians as human shields. The Houthi rebels have fired hundreds of missiles into Saudi Arabia.

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Activists said there were assaults on alleged Houthi locations in the Al-Aanab neighbourhood of the capital, according to Al-Araby Al-Jadeed.

Videos on social media appeared to show flames rising from areas where they were struck.

The Houthi rebels, in keeping with their normal policy, did not provide details on the impact of the bombing.

The precise number of coalition strikes is also unknown.