At least 26 civilians have been injured in a missile attack by Yemen's rebel Houthi movement on an airport in south-western Saudi Arabia, reported BBC citing state media.

Three women and two children were among those hurt when the missile struck Abha airport early on Wednesday, a military spokesman was quoted as saying.

Confirming the attack, an Arab coalition spokesman said that the missile attack was carried in the early hours of Wednesday on Saudi Arabia’s Abha International Airport by the Iranian-backed Houthi militia, which resulted in 26 civilians getting injured.

A rebel source had earlier claimed that the facility was hit "with precision".

Saudi Arabia leads a coalition of Arab states backing Yemen's government in its four-year war with the Houthis.

The US Embassy in Saudi Arabia condemned in the strongest terms the Houthi militia attack which “targeted innocent civilians."

The US Mission in the Kingdom also issued a security alert and said the Embassy in Riyadh and the Consulates General in Jeddah and Dhahran are monitoring the situation.

The Pentagon said the attack showed “new evidence” of Iran's malicious role in the region.

Meanwhile, leaders from around the Arab world have condemned the Houthi missile attack on Saudi Arabia’s Abha International Airport.  

The UAE, in its condemnation of the attack, said the act was proof of the Houthi militia’s attempts to “undermine regional security.”

In a statement, the Emirati foreign ministry renewed its “full solidarity” with Saudi Arabia and said it “stands with Riyadh against any threat to the Kingdom’s security and stability.”

The UAE also renewed its support for all measures taken to combat extremism and Houthi terrorism to preserve the Kingdom’s security and the safety of its citizens and residents on its territory.

The ministry also wished the injured a speedy recovery.

Bahrain also said on Wednesday that it “strongly condemned” the attack, calling it a “terrorist and cowardly criminal act against innocent civilians.”

Bahrain’s Foreign Ministry expressed support with “the brotherly Kingdom of Saudi Arabia” and affirmed “the need for a strong-willed international stand against Iran to stop it supporting these recurrent terrorist acts.”

Kuwait too echoed Bahrain’s condemnation of the targeting, saying that the targeting was a “criminal attack” on innocent people.

Yemen has been devastated by a conflict that escalated in March 2015, when the rebels seized control of much of the west of the country and forced President Abdrabbuh Mansour Hadi to flee abroad.

Alarmed by the rise of a group they believed to be backed militarily by regional Shia power Iran, Saudi Arabia and eight other mostly Sunni Arab states began an air campaign aimed at restoring Hadi's government.

The UN says at least 7,000 civilians have been killed and 11,000 injured in the fighting, with 65% of the deaths attributed to air strikes by the Saudi-led coalition.