The Saudi-led coalition battling rebels in Yemen says Saudi Arabia’s Air Force has shot down a ballistic missile directed at the kingdom’s southern border.

Yemen’s state news agency in Sanaa said that the target was a Saudi National Guard base in Najran on Yemen’s northwest border with Saudi Arabia, Al Jazeera reports.

But the statement published on the official Bahrain News Agency did not say whether the three had died in an accident or an attack, and did not say when the incident took place.

He said Saudi Arabia should be ready for a long war that would began soon.

Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates, which play key roles in the coalition, have lost the most troops in the campaign.

“The situation on the ground is now under the authority of the legitimate government”, Mikhlafi said, referring to Hadi’s exiled government, which has been operating mainly from the Saudi capital Riyadh since it was forced to leave Yemen months ago.

People stand around a crater caused by a Saudi airstrike on the outskirts of Yemen’s capital city of Sana’a, December 29, 2015.

More than 7,500 people have been killed and over 14,000 others injured since March.

In late March, a Saudi-led global coalition started carrying out airstrikes against Houthi positions at Hadi’s request.

Yemeni army soldiers fighting alongside allied fighters from popular committees loyal to the Ansarullah movement have conducted retaliatory attacks against the Saudi aggression, inflicting heavy losses on Riyadh’s military.