RIYADH: A civilian plane was engulfed in flames Wednesday after Yemen's Huthi rebels launched a drone strike on an airport in southern Saudi Arabia, days after the US moved to delist the insurgents as terrorists.

Saudi authorities did not immediately report any casualties from the attack, claimed by the Huthis, the latest in a series of rebel assaults on the kingdom despite a renewed American push to de-escalate the six-year conflict. "A cowardly criminal terrorist attack launched against Abha International Airport in Saudi Arabia by the Huthi militia," state-run Al-Ekhbariya television quoted the Riyadh-led military coalition battling the rebels as saying. "A fire that engulfed a passenger plane due to the Huthi attack on Abha Airport is under control," it added.