Iran-backed rebels fired Katyusha rockets at a busy market in Yemen's eastern city of Marib killing at least 20 people on Friday, medics and witnesses said.

"Twenty civilians were killed and dozens wounded" in the attack, a medical official said. Witnesses said the provincial capital's market was targeted.

Saudi Ambassador to Lebanon Ali Awad Asiri emphasized on Friday that his country is keen on Lebanon's stability, hoping that the dialogue among rival political parties would lead to fruition and elect a head of state after a vacuum at the post.

“Saudi Arabia is keen on Lebanon's stability. We hope that the dialogue succeeds in electing a new president to enhance the constitutional institutions,” the state-run National News Agency quoted the ambassador as saying.

Cheap oil prices ushered in by Saudi Arabia's policy of protecting its market share will end up squeezing high-cost producers like U.S. shale drillers, leading next year to the biggest drop in output in nearly a quarter century, the IEA said Friday.

Cheap fuel is also hooking consumers, with oil demand growth set to hit a five-year high this year, the International Energy Agency said in its monthly report.

Reporters Without Borders (RSF) called Thursday for Saudi Arabia to release a journalist and blogger held for more than a year without being charged or tried.

A journalist with local online media outlet al-Sharq, Saudi Alaa Brinji was arrested in May 2014 for "critical comments he posted on Facebook," the press freedom watchdog said. 

Assassinated Russian opposition leader Boris Nemtsov, a Ukraine military pilot held on murder charges by Moscow and jailed Saudi Arabian blogger Raif Badawi were shortlisted Thursday for the European Parliament's prestigious Sakharov human rights prize.

The prize is awarded every year to honor individuals who combat intolerance, fanaticism and oppression, often falling foul of their governments as a result.

New U.S. Treasury sanctions Thursday took aim at financial links between Saudi Arabia and the Palestinian Islamist movement Hamas, which the U.S. labels a terrorist group.

The Treasury named Hamas political bureau member Saleh Aruri; Saudi-based Hamas financier Mahir Salah; Abu-Ubaydah Khayri Hafiz Al-Agha, a Saudi citizen and "senior Hamas financial officer"; and al-Agha's company Asyaf International Holding Group for sanctions.

A Saudi border guard was shot dead Thursday when his post came under fire from Yemen, where a Saudi-led coalition is fighting rebels, the interior ministry said.

The post in the Jazan district "was subject to heavy fire from a mountainous area in Yemen," said a ministry statement carried by the official Saudi Press Agency.

Bahrain's Foreign Minister Khaled bin Ahmed al-Khalifa called for a ground offensive "to eliminate the Iranian influence" in Yemen, in an interview with France's Le Figaro newspaper published Thursday.

"We need to be present on the ground to obtain the application of U.N. Resolution 2216 and the return of the legitimate authority to power," he said.

An Iraqi convicted of murder on Thursday became the 132nd person executed in Saudi Arabia this year, the interior ministry said.

Kazim al-Abasi, a sheep herder, was found guilty of killing a Saudi with whom he worked, the ministry said in a statement carried by the official Saudi Press Agency.

Warplanes of the Saudi-led coalition on Wednesday bombed Shiite Huthi rebel positions in Sanaa, stepping up attacks in the wake of a deadly missile strike on its troops, witnesses said.

They said the latest raids targeted arms depots held by the Huthi rebels and renegade troops loyal to ousted president Ali Abdullah Saleh in southeast Sanaa.