Saudi Arabia and Egypt are considering holding "large-scale" military maneuvers after launching air strikes on Yemeni rebels who have been slapped with a U.N. arms embargo and sanctions.

In a possible sign the Saudi-led air campaign against the Shiite rebels may expand into a ground operation, Cairo said it and Riyadh were mulling the exercises in Saudi Arabia, with other Gulf countries participating.

Saudi Ambassador to Lebanon Ali Awadh Asiri emphasized his right to defend his country in the wake of the criticism against it over its military operation against Huthi rebels, especially by Hizbullah, reported As Safir newspaper on Wednesday.

He told the daily: “I have the right to respond to issues that concern my country and leadership, especially when these remarks exceed reason.”

The U.S. military is well equipped to defend the country against cyberattacks but is not yet ready to wage digital warfare, a senior defense official told lawmakers on Tuesday.

The military's cyber command, created in 2009, lacks the means to lead an offensive campaign in a fast-moving digital conflict, said Eric Rosenbach, the Pentagon's principal adviser on cyber security.

Five car bombs in the Baghdad area, including one near a hospital, killed at least 15 people and wounded more than 45 on Tuesday, security and medical officials said.

One blast hit a car park across the street from Yarmuk hospital in the west of the Iraqi capital, and another exploded near a car park in Mashtal in the city's east.

Saudi authorities said on Tuesday they are taking legal action against two police officers accused of sexually assaulting a pair of Iranian male pilgrims, an incident which Tehran protested.

The Saudis began proceedings after allegations of "sexual harassment against two teenage Iranian victims" at Jeddah airport, the interior ministry spokesman said, cited by the official Saudi Press Agency.

Unrest in Yemen is being driven by "Iran's hunger for power," exiled President Abedrabbo Mansour Hadi alleged Monday, urging Shiite rebels to sit down at the negotiating table.

"My country, Yemen, is under siege by radical Huthi militia forces whose campaign of horror and destruction is fueled by the political and military support of an Iranian regime obsessed with regional domination," Hadi wrote in an op-ed in the New York Times.

The U.N. atomic watchdog said Monday it will hold talks on Wednesday seeking to jumpstart its long-stalled probe into Iran's alleged past efforts to develop nuclear weapons, a key part of a hoped-for final deal with major powers.

The meeting in Tehran will be the first since Iran and six major powers agreed on April 2 the main outlines of potentially historic deal curtailing Iran's nuclear activities in return for sanctions relief.

Islamabad on Sunday hit out at the United Arab Emirates for condemning a parliamentary vote by Pakistani lawmakers to stay out of the conflict in Yemen, in a rare display of discord between the two allies.

Pakistan's parliament on Friday passed a unanimous resolution backing the government's commitment to protect Saudi Arabia's territory from Shiite Huthi rebels, but declined Riyadh's request for Pakistani troops, ships and warplanes inside Yemen.

Saudi Arabia called on Iran to stop supporting Shiite rebels in Yemen on Sunday but Foreign Minister Prince Saud al-Faisal insisted Riyadh was not at war with Tehran.

"Unless Iran thinks it is suddenly become part of Yemen, we are not at war with Iran," he said at a press conference with his French counterpart Laurent Fabius.

Hackers took over the social media accounts of Iran's Al-Alam television Sunday and posted material supportive of the Saudi-led air war against Iran-backed rebels in Yemen, the Arabic-language channel said.

Al-Alam accused the Saudi government of being behind the cyberattack in retaliation for the channel's critical coverage of the bombing campaign launched on March 26.