Yemen’s Houthis fired missiles at the presidential palace complex in the southern city of Aden on Thursday, killing five people, the government said, as the Saudi-led coalition listed dozens of Houthi attacks on Saudi infrastructure in recent weeks.
The attack was the first on Aden’s Al-Maashiq palace in the current conflict between the Iran-aligned Houthis and Saudi Arabia. The palace is the seat of Yemen’s Saudi-backed and internationally recognised government.
Yemen’s prime minister, Shaya al-Zindani, and cabinet members were safe following the attack, Yemeni information minister Moammar al-Eryani said. Witnesses told Reuters they heard loud booms near the palace. Yemen’s cabinet said the attack involved missiles and drones.
Yemen’s health minister, Qasim Buhaibeh, said five people were killed and 16 wounded in the attack, with casualties including guards and civilian employees.
Houthi military spokesperson Yahya Saree said its fighters had bombed what he described as the Saudi military operations headquarters in Aden, as part of the group’s declared policy of targeting “Saudi reinforcements wherever they were located”.
Agence France-Presse reported that a Yemeni government minister said on condition of anonymity that the palace attack had hit a command centre for the Saudi-led coalition. The official added that the command centre was hit by three missiles, and the headquarters of the coalition forces at the presidential complex with two missiles, adding that there were Yemeni and Saudi casualties, without providing a specific toll.
Fighting has escalated between the Houthi rebels and a Saudi-led coalition as part of clashes linked to the US and Israeli war on Iran, and aid agencies have warned of rapidly worsening conditions in Yemen.
The clashes have complicated efforts to end the wider Iran war and further rattled global markets as Saudi Arabia, one of the world’s top oil exporters, faces repeated attacks. Regional aviation is affected, too, as the rebels have warned airlines about their use of Saudi airspace for attacks. Thousands of flights across the kingdom have been disrupted.
The UN security council issued a joint statement on Thursday condemning the “escalatory” attacks by Iran-backed Houthi rebels on Saudi Arabia, including “reckless strikes” on Riyadh’s airport.
The Saudi capital’s international airport has been targeted by strikes 20 times since the beginning of the month, with an attack last weekend killing 13 people and wounding more than 300.
In a joint statement shared by the security council “condemned in the strongest terms continued and escalatory Houthi attacks against the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia,” as well as “continued Houthi attacks and threats against commercial shipping in the Red Sea and Bab al-Mandab [strait]”.
Earlier on Thursday, the Saudi-led coalition fighting the Houthis said it intercepted a cruise missile over the province of Medina. Flightradar24, a tracking platform, said dozens of flights were canceled or delayed at Jeddah’s airport.
The coalition statement did not assign blame for the attack. The Houthis’ military spokesperson denied the rebels carried it out. The group previously pledged not to attack airports in the holy cities of Mecca and Medina in Saudi Arabia.
Saudi Arabia also said it destroyed a drone over the country’s eastern province, a major oil-producing region, and intercepted a drone in Khamis Mushait, near a major military airbase.
Earlier this week, Saudi Arabia said the headquarters of the oil giant Saudi Aramco were hit by Houthi attacks, and reported damage to the building.
Inside Yemen, the fighting has revived a devastating civil war after four years of relative calm. One focus of alarm is the Houthi-besieged city of Taiz, Yemen’s third-largest city, where residents were running short of basic necessities.
With Reuters and Agence France-Presse
