Houthi Missile Strike Aden Presidential Palace Kills Five
Yemen's Houthis fired a houthi missile strike at the Aden presidential palace on Thursday, killing five people and wounding 16, the Yemeni government said.
Houthi Missile Strike Aden Presidential Palace Kills Five
Strike on the seat of government
Yemen's government said the Houthis fired missiles at the presidential palace complex in Aden on Thursday, killing five people. The attack was the first on Aden's Al-Maashiq palace in the current conflict between the Iran-aligned Houthis and Saudi Arabia. Al-Maashiq palace is the seat of Yemen's Saudi-backed and internationally recognised government. Yemen's cabinet said the attack involved missiles and drones, and witnesses reported loud booms near the palace.
Casualties and officials safe
Health minister Qasim Buhaibeh said five people were killed and 16 wounded, with casualties including guards and civilian employees. Information minister Moammar al-Eryani said prime minister Shaya al-Zindani and cabinet members were safe following the attack.
What each side says was hit
The accounts of what was struck differ. Houthi military spokesperson Yahya Saree said its fighters bombed what he described as the Saudi military operations headquarters in Aden, part of the rebels' declared policy:
targeting "Saudi reinforcements wherever they were located".
An anonymous Yemeni government minister told AFP the palace attack had hit a command centre for the Saudi-led coalition. The minister said 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 but no specific toll.
Wider attacks on Saudi Arabia
The palace strike came on a day of other action. Earlier on Thursday, the Saudi-led coalition said it intercepted a cruise missile over the province of Medina; the coalition statement did not assign blame for the attack, and the Houthi military spokesperson denied the rebels carried it out.
The UN security council also issued a joint statement on Thursday condemning the "escalatory" Houthi attacks on Saudi Arabia, including "reckless strikes" on Riyadh's airport, and condemning continued Houthi attacks and threats against commercial shipping in the Red Sea and Bab al-Mandab strait.
Other developments in the week:
- Riyadh'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.
- Saudi Arabia said it destroyed a drone over the eastern province, a major oil-producing region, and intercepted another in Khamis Mushait near a major military airbase.
- Saudi Arabia said this week that the headquarters of the oil giant Saudi Aramco were hit by Houthi attacks, and reported damage to the building.
- Flight-tracking service Flightradar24 reported dozens of cancellations and delays at Jeddah's airport, with disruption across the kingdom's air traffic after the Houthis warned airlines against using Saudi airspace for attacks.
The fighting has revived Yemen's civil war after four years of relative calm. Aid agencies have warned of rapidly worsening conditions in Yemen, and residents of Houthi-besieged Taiz, the country's third-largest city, are short of basic necessities.
