Yemen Government Says Houthis Strike Presidential Palace in Aden
(Bloomberg) — Yemen’s Houthis hit the internationally-recognized government’s presidential palace in the southern part of the country, the latest escalation in the Iran-backed militia’s attacks on Saudi Arabia and Yemeni forces supported by the kingdom.
The missile and drone attack on the Maashiq presidential palace in Aden, where the Yemeni government is based, killed and injured a number of security personnel deployed at the site, the state-run Saba news agency reported Thursday, citing a statement from the cabinet.
The cabinet said the strike will not impact the Yemeni armed forces’ battle to end the Houthi “coup,” and that Aden will remain the de facto capital. Government officials were unharmed in the attack, the Saudi state Al Ekhbariya TV quoted Yemeni Information Minister Moammar al-Eryani as saying.
The Houthi group, a clan from the north that took over the capital Sanaa in 2014 and controls territory that is home to around 70% of Yemen’s population, claimed on Thursday to have attacked the Saudi “military command control” in Aden.
Earlier this month, the Houthis carried out strikes on Saudi airports, killing at least 19, mostly in the capital. The group has targeted Riyadh’s King Khalid International Airport 20 times so far in October, spokesman for the Saudi-led coalition in Yemen, Turki Al-Maliki, said in a televised briefing.
Saudi Arabia will continue to provide aerial support to the Yemeni government’s ground operations, Al-Maliki said. The Houthis toppled the Yemeni regime in 2015 and withstood a subsequent bombing campaign led by Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates until a 2022 truce.
The Houthis, one of Tehran’s main proxy militant groups, had largely stayed out of the US-Israel war on Iran until they announced in July a blockade of Saudi ports, claiming the kingdom was besieging parts of Yemen.
Fighting picked up in early September when the group started firing on Saudi Arabia almost daily, attacking its energy facilities among other targets. It advanced south from its stronghold in northwest Yemen toward the Bab el-Mandeb Strait, a crucial chokepoint for energy tankers and container ships transiting between Asia and Europe via the Suez Canal.
Fighting further intensified in early October, when the coalition announced a large operation to recapture Houthi-held territory and “eliminate” the group.
The Houthis received “advanced technologies with the help of regional parties,” Al-Maliki said during the briefing, adding that Saudi Arabia is capable of thwarting threats to its territory as well as Bab el-Mandeb.
Houthi strikes on Saudi Arabia continued on Thursday, targeting different areas including the southern region and Khamis Mushait near the Yemeni border, the coalition said.
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