Saudi Arabia says it helped evacuate an Iranian crew member from a "hostile" ship off the coast of Yemen amid its war against the Iranian-backed Houthi rebels.

A statement late Tuesday from a spokesman for the Saudi-led military campaign in Yemen, Col. Turki al-Maliki, says they flew the injured man off the Iranian ship Savis to a military hospital in Jizan.

Maliki says the Savis was 95 nautical miles northwest of Hodeida at the time of the rescue.

He said the rescue came after a request from Iran's mission to the United Nations. The Iranian mission did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Maliki did not explain why the ship was "hostile." The Saudis alleged in the past that Iran's paramilitary Revolutionary Guard ran operations from the Savis.