Summary

Yemen’s Houthis said they attacked a Saudi position in the city of Aden on Wednesday, with smoke seen rising near the airport, in the third attack in a week on the seat of power of Yemen’s Riyadh-backed government. “Our armed forces were able to target the Saudi enemy’s operations room in the Badr camp in Aden with a ballistic missile,” Houthi military spokesman Yahya Saree said in a statement. A police official in Aden earlier told AFP there had been a blast “caused by a Houthi missile”, speaking on condition of anonymity for security reasons. Two other security sources in the city told AFP the attack targeted a site near the airport that belonged to forces from the Saudi-led military coalition that has been battling the Houthis. Saudi Arabia and the internationally recognised Yemeni government have recently come under sustained attack from the Iran-backed Houthis, shifting the focus of the wider Middle East war that erupted with US-Israeli strikes on Iran in February. On Friday, two missiles landed within the perimeter of the airport, with the Houthis claiming the attack. A day earlier, the Houthis launched a deadly missile attack on the presidential palace in Aden, hitting command centres located inside the Al-Maashiq presidential compound, which is used by government forces and the Saudi-led coalition. In July, a fragile 2022 truce fell apart after the Houthis allowed an Iranian plane to land in Yemen’s capital Sanaa in defiance of Riyadh’s control over Yemeni airspace, setting off a spate of attacks. Later, the Houthis declared a maritime blockade of Saudi Arabia and began hitting its ships, territory and oil facilities, before seizing government-held territory in Yemen along the Red Sea coastline in a lightning campaign. In response, the Saudi air force has been regularly targeting the Houthis in support of the Yemeni government.