Houthi missiles strike Aden presidential palace, killing five, Yemen says

Houthi missiles hit the presidential palace complex in the southern Yemeni city of Aden on Thursday, killing five people and wounding 16, the country's government said. It was the first attack on the Al-Maashiq palace in the current conflict between the Iran-aligned Houthis and Saudi Arabia.

Prime minister reported safe

Yemen's prime minister, Shaya al-Zindani, and cabinet members were safe after the attack, information minister Moammar al-Eryani said. Witnesses told Reuters they heard loud booms near the palace, and the cabinet said missiles and drones were used. Health minister Qasim Buhaibeh said five people were killed and 16 wounded, with casualties including guards and civilian employees.

The palace is the seat of Yemen's Saudi-backed, internationally recognised government. Houthi military spokesperson Yahya Saree said the group's fighters had bombed what he described as the Saudi military operations headquarters in Aden, part of its declared policy of targeting "Saudi reinforcements wherever they were located".

Agence France-Presse reported that a Yemeni government minister, speaking on condition of anonymity, said the attack hit a command centre for the Saudi-led coalition, with three missiles striking the command centre and two hitting the coalition's headquarters at the presidential complex. The official said there were Yemeni and Saudi casualties but did not give a toll.

Wider escalation

The Saudi-led coalition listed dozens of Houthi attacks on Saudi infrastructure in recent weeks. Earlier on Thursday, the coalition said it intercepted a cruise missile over Medina province, and the tracking platform Flightradar24 reported dozens of flights cancelled or delayed at Jeddah's airport. Riyadh's international airport has been targeted 20 times since the start of the month, including an attack last weekend that killed 13 people and wounded more than 300.

The UN security council issued a joint statement on Thursday condemning what it called escalatory attacks by the Iran-backed Houthis on Saudi Arabia, including reckless strikes on Riyadh's airport, and attacks and threats against commercial shipping in the Red Sea and the Bab al-Mandab strait.

The coalition statement did not assign blame for the Medina interception, and the Houthi military spokesperson denied the rebels carried it out. The group has previously pledged not to attack airports in the holy cities of Mecca and Medina. Saudi Arabia also said it destroyed a drone over its eastern oil-producing province and intercepted a drone in Khamis Mushait, near a major military airbase. Earlier this week it said Houthi attacks hit the headquarters of oil giant Saudi Aramco, causing damage.

Fighting inside Yemen

The escalation is part of clashes linked to the US and Israeli war on Iran, and aid agencies have warned of rapidly worsening conditions in Yemen. The fighting has complicated efforts to end the wider Iran war and unsettled global markets, while disrupting thousands of flights across the kingdom.

Inside Yemen, the clashes have 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, where residents are running short of basic necessities.

Source: The Guardian World.