He wields enormous power and leads a war against rebels in neighboring Yemen for his father King Salman, but Saudi Arabia's defense minister is still in his early 30s.

Just weeks after he was appointed to the key post in January, Prince Mohammed bin Salman assumed huge responsibility when the kingdom sent its armed forces into conflict.

Saudi authorities executed a citizen on Tuesday after convicting him of sexually harassing and brutally murdering his Indonesian maid.

Shayea al-Qahtani was found guilty of killing the maid by beating her with a cane and pouring boiling water over her, the interior ministry said.

A U.S. aircraft carrier was headed to the Arabian Sea Tuesday as Washington said it was monitoring Iranian vessels suspected of carrying weapons to Huthi rebels in Yemen in violation of a U.N. embargo.

In Geneva meanwhile the U.N. health agency said more than 900 people had been killed in Yemen since late March, when a Saudi-led coalition launched air strikes against Iran-backed rebels clashing with pro-government forces.

Progressive Socialist Party leader MP Walid Jumblat ruled out a dispute between him and Hizbullah over Iran's expansion in the region and its rivalry with Saudi Arabia.

In remarks to An Nahar daily published on Tuesday, Jumblat said Hizbullah should reassess “Iran's absolute support for the Syrian regime, which will destroy Syria.”

The U.S. Navy aircraft carrier USS Theodore Roosevelt is steaming toward the waters off Yemen to beef up security and join other American ships that are prepared to intercept any Iranian vessels carrying weapons to the Houthi rebels fighting in Yemen.

Navy officials said Monday that the Roosevelt was moving through the Arabian Sea. The Navy has been beefing up its presence in the Gulf of Aden and the southern Arabian Sea amid reports that a convoy of about eight Iranian ships is heading toward Yemen and possibly carrying arms for the Houthis.

Saudi-led air strikes on a missile depot in Yemen's rebel-held capital Monday sparked explosions that left at least 18 people dead and 300 wounded, flattening houses and shaking faraway neighborhoods.

Many more people were feared to have been killed after two strikes hit the hilltop depot, leaving a trail of destruction in the Fajj Attan area of Sanaa which was covered in thick clouds of smoke.

A Saudi soldier has been killed in a barrage of mortar and other fire along the border with Yemen, the interior ministry said on Monday.

The soldier is the eighth to die since warplanes from a Saudi-led coalition on March 26 began air strikes in Yemen to stop a southern advance by Iran-backed Huthi rebels.

Al-Mustaqbal movement leader ex-PM Saad Hariri held talks Monday with Saudi King Salman bin Abdul Aziz at the al-Yamama Palace in Riyadh.

During the meeting, Hariri thanked the monarch for “the kingdom's keenness on Lebanon's security and stability as well as its support for the Lebanese army in terms of boosting its preparedness and strength so that it can confront terror and defend Lebanon's borders,” the ex-PM's office said in a statement.

The commanders of a vast military district in Yemen have backed the exiled president as the leader of Huthi rebels vowed to never submit in the face of a Saudi-led air war.

The Saudi-led air strikes continued on Monday and a series of explosions shook the Yemeni capital after warplanes hit a missile depot in Sanaa belonging to troops allied with the Shiite rebels.

Lebanon received on Monday the first shipment of $3 billion worth of French arms under a Saudi-financed deal to boost the country's defensive capabilities to combat terror threats, along its northeastern border in particular.

French Defense Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian, who arrived in Lebanon on Sunday night and was welcomed by his Lebanese counterpart Samir Moqbel at Beirut Rafik Hariri International Airport, reaffirmed in a brief speech the importance of preserving stability of Lebanon, pointing out that the army is paying the price of pressure enforced by terror groups