Sanaa (AFP) - Air strikes by the Saudi-led coalition killed 23 Huthi rebels and five civilians at a village in northwestern Yemen on Sunday, residents said.

Coalition helicopters and planes targeted a building used by the rebels at the village of Zaylaa, in Hajja province which borders Saudi Arabia, they said.

"Houses nearby were hit and five civilians were killed as well as 23 Huthis," a resident told AFP on condition of anonymity.

He added that 17 people were wounded, but did not say whether they were civilians or Huthi fighters.

The air strikes came as the Saudi army announced Sunday that one of its generals was killed while on duty in the kingdom's Jazan province near the border with Yemen.

He is the second high-ranking Saudi military official to have been killed on the border this weekend.

A colonel and another border guard died late Friday in a gun battle after a landmine blast along the frontier with Yemen, according to the Saudi interior ministry.

In late March, a Saudi-led coalition launched a military campaign against the Huthi insurgents to stop them from taking control of the whole country.

Around 70 people, mostly soldiers, have been killed in Saudi Arabia from border shelling and skirmishes since the coalition campaign began.