ADEN, Yemen (REUTERS) - A senior leader of Yemen's Houthi movement said on Thursday that Saudi air strikes amounted to an aggression against the country and warned they would set off a "wide war" in the region.

"There is an aggression underway on Yemen and we will confront it valiantly," Mohammed al-Bukhaiti, a member of the Houthis politburo, told the Doha-based al Jazeera television.

"Military operations will drag the region to a wide war."