SANAA, May 12 (Xinhua) -- Yemen's Houthi rebels said they launched a drone strike on Saudi Arabia's army in the Saudi border province of Asir on Sunday morning, Houthi-run TV al-Masirah reported.

"The Kasif-2K drone attacked a gathering of Saudi army in Rabu'ah town of Asir, killing dozens," the rebel TV said without providing further details.

There were no comments yet by the Saudi army on the Yemeni rebels' claim.

Houthi rebels had launched dozens of drone strikes and ballistic missile attacks on Saudi border provinces of Asir, Jizan and Najran in the past months to retaliate against what the rebels said Saudi-led coalition airstrikes on their positions.

Saudi Arabia has been leading a Sunni Arab military coalition against the Iran-allied Yemeni Shiite Houthi rebels since March 2015 to support the internationally-recognized government of President Abd-Rabbu Mansour Hadi after the rebels forced him into exile in Riyadh and seized much of Yemen's north, including the capital Sanaa.

Sunday's attack came a day after the rebels claimed that they had unilaterally withdrawn from three ports of the Yemeni Red Sea port city of Hodeidah.

The UN spokesman Farhan Haq confirmed to reporters at the UN headquarters in New York on Saturday that the Houthi rebels' withdrawal from Hodeidah ports "has begun."

Witnesses saw the Houthi rebels handing over Salif port of Hodeidah on Saturday to local coastguards wearing police uniforms at the presence of a UN monitoring team.

Mohammed Ali al-Houthi, the head of the Houthi group's Supreme Revolutionary Committee, called on the United Nations on Saturday to press the other side (coalition-backed Yemeni government forces) to take "similar steps" and implement Stockholm Agreement.

Muammar al-Eryani, the information minister of the Yemeni exiled government, dismissed the rebels' withdrawal as a "fake show to misinform the upcoming UN Security Council meeting on the Yemeni conflict," adding "the Houthis handed over the ports to themselves."

The long-delayed UN-sponsored Stockholm Agreement, the first step toward a comprehensive political solution, was reached in December 2018 and focused on the port city of Hodeidah, the lifeline for Yemen's most commercial imports and humanitarian aid.

Both Yemeni parties have largely obeyed the cease-fire deal, but failed to withdraw forces from the city.

Hodeidah has been the focus of clashes since 2017.

The government forces, backed by the Saudi-led coalition, have advanced to the southern outskirts of the port city, but the forces have halted a major offensive to recapture Hodeidah to pave the way for peace efforts.