Gold, silver futures close lower Friday

International gold and silver prices closed lower on Friday.

On the New York Mercantile Exchange, gold futures for December delivery dropped 3.29 percent to settle at 3,898.9 U.S. dollars per ounce, while silver futures for December delivery lost 5.93 percent to close at 49.276 dollars per ounce.

Yemen's Houthi group announced on Friday that the Saudi-led coalition had launched 93 strikes against Yemen over the past 24 hours, while Saudi Arabia said it had intercepted and destroyed ballistic missiles and drones fired by the Houthis.

On Friday, Houthi military spokesman Yahya Sarea said in a statement that the Saudi forces had carried out 93 air and missile strikes over the past 24 hours in Sanaa and several Yemeni provinces. The figures could not be independently verified.

Also on Friday, Houthi-run al-Masirah TV reported that seven people were killed and a child was wounded in Saudi airstrikes on residential houses in Yemen's southwestern province of Taiz.

On the same day, Majid al-Nuzaili, spokesperson for the Yemeni government forces, said the Houthis had targeted both Aden International Airport and the presidential palace.

Al-Ma'ashiq Palace, a heavily guarded compound housing Yemen's government and secured by forces supported by the Saudi-led coalition, has repeatedly come under attack during the latest escalation.

Meanwhile, the Saudi-led coalition announced in separate statements that it had intercepted and destroyed three drones and two missiles targeting different regions of the kingdom, including the Saudi capital Riyadh and the regions of Mecca and Medina.

Recent weeks have seen escalating cross-border hostilities between the two sides, with Saudi strikes hitting Houthi-held areas in Yemen and the Houthis launching missiles and drones toward Saudi Arabia.

Yemen has been mired in conflict since late 2014, when the Houthis seized the capital Sanaa and much of northern Yemen, prompting the Saudi-led coalition to intervene in 2015 in support of the Yemeni government.