A demonstration outside the Saudi embassy in Sanaa, Jan. 7

SANAA — Iran said Saudi warplanes had attacked its embassy in Yemen’s capital on Thursday, a development that would exacerbate tensions between the major Shi’a and Sunni powers in the region, and Riyadh said it would investigate the accusation.

“Saudi Arabia is responsible for the damage to the embassy building and the injury to some of its staff,” Foreign Ministry Spokesman Hossein Jaber Ansari was quoted as saying by Iranian state television news channel IRIB.

Residents and witnesses in the capital Sanaa said there was no damage to the embassy building in the district of Hadda.

They said an air strike had hit a public square about 700 meters away from the embassy and that some stones and shrapnel had landed in the embassy’s yard.

In Washington, White House spokesman Josh Earnest said the United States has received conflicting reports about the Iranian Embassy in Sanaa and was still collecting information to determine what, if anything, happened to the building.

A Sanaa resident went to the embassy on Thursday and reported no damage but said some shrapnel was strewn nearby.

Saudi coalition spokesman Brigadier General Ahmed Asseri said coalition jets carried out heavy strikes in Sanaa on Wednesday night to target missile launchers used by the Houthi militia to fire at Saudi Arabia.