ADEN, Yemen, Aug. 26 (Xinhua) -- The pro-government Yemeni forces shot down a drone belonging to the Houthi rebels over central Yemen's province of al-Bayda on Sunday, a government official said on Sunday.

The local government source said that a Houthi drone armed with explosives was shot down after trying to carry out an attack against the 19th Armored Brigade in al-Bayda province.

The official, who asked to remain anonymous, said that "the pro-government forces aborted the attack that Houthis had planned to carry out against the army base."

Initial investigations revealed that the explosives-loaded drone was smuggled into Yemen from Iran along with other sophisticated weapons, the official said.

The Houthi leaders in the country's capital Sanaa have yet to comment on the drone incident.

But pro-Houthi media outlets claimed launching an attack with a drone against a meeting of high-ranking government officials in al-Bayda province earlier in the day.

Last month, the Houthi fighters used an Iranian-made drone and tried to launch a missile attack against the headquarters of the Saudi-led coalition forces in the southern port city of Aden.

But the Saudi-backed Yemeni air forces foiled the Houthi drone attack, causing no casualties.

The coalition intervened in the Yemeni conflict in March 2015 to roll back the Iranian-allied Shiite Houthi rebels and support the internationally-recognized government of President Abd-Rabbu Mansour Hadi.

The rebels have seized control over much of the country's north since September 2014, including Sanaa, and forced Hadi and his government into exile in Riyadh, the capital city of Saudi Arabia.

The war has killed more than 10,000 Yemenis, mostly civilians, and displaced 3 million others, triggering one of the world's worst humanitarian crises.