A security officer walks past Abha airport in Saudi Arabia. File / Reuters

Twelve people were injured by falling debris on Thursday when the Saudi military blew up a Yemeni rebel drone targeting an airport close to the border, officials said.

"Saudi defence forces destroyed a drone launched towards Abha International Airport," the official Saudi Press Agency (SPA) said.

The SPA said "12 civilians" were hurt when the unmanned aircraft was intercepted, including citizens of Bangladesh, India, Nepal, the Philippines and Sri Lanka, as well as two Saudis.

In response, the Saudi-led coalition said it would strike positions from which the Houthis launch drones in Sanaa.

"We ask civilians in Sanaa to evacuate civilian sites used for military purposes for the next 72 hours," it said, quoted by SPA.

"As a result of the interception process, some shrapnel of the drone was scattered after its interception inside the internal perimeter of the airport," coalition spokesman Brigadier General Turki Al Maliki told SPA.

He said Abha was a "civilian airport that is protected under international humanitarian law" and accused the rebels of a "war crime."

The White House said President Joe Biden reaffirmed in a phone call Wednesday with Saudi King Salman the "US commitment to support Saudi Arabia in the defence of its people and territory" from Houthi attacks.

Agence France-Presse