SANAA, Sept. 20 (Xinhua) -- The Saudi-led coalition launched a series of airstrikes early on Friday on Yemen's Red Sea port city of Hodeidah, targeting four sites which it said used by Yemeni Houthi rebels for assembling remote-controlled boats and sea mines.

In a statement carried by Saudi Press Agency, the coalition spokesman Turki al-Maliki said the targeted sites in the north of Hodeidah were used by Houthis to carry out "terrorist operations" that threaten shipping lines and the international trade in Bab al-Mandab Strait and in the south of the Red Sea.

Meanwhile, the Houthi group in their al-Masirah TV said the airstrikes breached a UN-brokered cease-fire deal that reached in Stockholm last year to halt fight in Hodeidah, saying that they are ready to confront "any possible military escalation."

The airstrikes came hours after the coalition said that it intercepted and destroyed a bomb-laden boat on the Red Sea on Thursday night but did not specify the intended target.

The Houthis last week claimed responsibility for drone attacks on Saudi two major Aramco plants that temporarily halted half of Saudi oil output.

Saudi Arabia has been leading an Arab military coalition against Iran-allied Houthis in Yemen for more than four years in support of the exiled internationally-recognized government of Yemeni President Abd-Rabbu Mansour Hadi. Enditem

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