In brief
A Houthi missile strike hit Aden's presidential palace on 15 October, killing two security personnel and injuring a number of others, Yemeni officials said. The Yemen Information Minister confirmed the Prime Minister and other ministers were unharmed. The attack is part of a broader attack campaign against Saudi‑backed forces and infrastructure. Yemen’s Prime Minister condemned the strike as “cowardly” and threatened to intensify military actions against Houthis.
A Houthi missile strike hit the presidential palace in Aden on 15 October, killing two security personnel and injuring several others, Yemeni officials confirmed.
The attack, which fired five ballistic missiles at al‑Maashiq Palace, was described by Information Minister Moammar al‑Eryani as a calculated strike aimed at the Saudi‑backed government's command center. He added that senior government officials, including Prime Minister Shaya Zindani, were unharmed but that other staff suffered injuries.
Houthi military spokesman Yahya Sarea called the assault a “terrorist strike” on the “Saudi enemy’s military operations headquarters in Aden.” The strike comes amid a Saudi‑led coalition’s ongoing air campaign against the Iran‑backed group, which has been targeting Saudi aviation, oil and gas facilities for months.
Prime Minister Zindani denounced the attack as “cowardly” and a continuation of the Houthis’ criminal actions. He pledged that the government would not waver in its resolve to fight the insurgents along Yemen’s southern coast and other fronts.
The conflict, which started in 2014 when the Houthis seized the capital Sanaa, has escalated since 2015 when a Saudi‑led coalition intervened. Recent months have seen the Houthis targeting a range of Saudi infrastructure, including an attack that killed 13 people at Riyadh’s airport last week.
Iran has repeatedly denied providing weapons to the Houthis, though its deputy foreign minister accused the government of supporting the rebels. Meanwhile, the United Nations reports 201,000 people displaced in Yemen and a rise in cholera cases, with over 1,200 civilians killed and nearly 6,000 wounded since August.
