By Enas Alashray, Mohammed Ghobari and Eman Abouhassira
CAIRO/DUBAI, Oct 15 (Reuters) – Yemen’s Houthis fired missiles at the presidential palace complex in the southern city of Aden on Thursday, killing five people, the government said, as the Saudi-led coalition listed dozens of Houthi attacks on Saudi infrastructure in recent weeks.
The attack was the first in the current conflict between the Iran-aligned Houthis and Saudi Arabia on Aden’s Al-Maashiq palace, the seat of Yemen’s Saudi-backed and internationally recognised government. The conflict is a new theatre in the wider regional war that began with US and Israeli strikes on Iran in February.
Yemen’s prime minister and cabinet members were safe following the attack, Yemeni Information Minister Moammar al-Eryani said. Witnesses told Reuters they heard loud booms near the palace. Yemen’s cabinet said the attack involved missiles and drones.
Yemen’s health minister Qasim Buhaibeh said five people were killed and 16 wounded in what he described as a Houthi attack on the government’s official headquarters at the presidential complex. The casualties included guards and civilian employees.
Houthi military spokesperson Yahya Saree said its fighters had bombed what he described as the Saudi military operations headquarters in Aden, as part of the group’s declared policy of targeting “Saudi reinforcements wherever they were located”.
The Houthi-run news agency SABA said the headquarters was run by Saudi officers and that there were weapons depots there. Reuters could not independently verify the claims.
Fighting between the Houthis and Saudi-backed forces resumed last month, and aid agencies have warned of rapidly worsening conditions in Yemen.
Last week, government forces launched a campaign to recapture areas controlled by the Houthis, recovering ground near the Bab el-Mandeb Strait, a key shipping artery.
War broke out in Yemen in 2014 when the Houthis seized the capital Sanaa, driving the government south. A Saudi-led military intervention the following year led to a bloody stalemate before a 2022 truce that held until this year.
In that phase of the conflict Houthi fighters and allied forces briefly seized Al-Maashiq palace during a battle for Aden, before withdrawing.
COALITION SAYS HOUTHIS ARE GETTING MISSILES, FAST BOATS
As Saudi Arabia backs government forces, the Houthis have been firing ballistic missiles and drones at Saudi airports, ports and oil installations, turning US ally Saudi Arabia into a pressure point in the wider war and threatening its ambitious economic plans.
On Thursday, the Saudi-led military coalition said the Houthis had attempted to attack dozens of such sites, highlighting the risk to Saudi civilian infrastructure. The governing council of the UN’s International Civil Aviation Organization condemned the recent attacks on civilian airports, aircraft, and aviation infrastructure in Saudi Arabia.
Coalition spokesperson Turki al-Maliki told reporters that the Houthis had launched 20 attacks on King Khalid International Airport in Riyadh this month, killing 17 people and wounding 333 others. The airport is one of Saudi Arabia’s main international aviation hubs.
The coalition said Houthi attacks on Abha airport in southwestern Saudi Arabia near the Yemeni border had killed three people and wounded 28.
Maliki said the Houthis had acquired advanced military technology with the help of “regional actors,” including ballistic missiles, drones and explosive-laden fast boats.
Iran has provided weapons, money and training to the Houthis, although Tehran has officially denied arming them in violation of a UN arms embargo.
Maliki also said the coalition had destroyed 127 weapons storage facilities and launch platforms in Yemen’s mountainous areas, calling on the Houthis to immediately halt operations targeting civilians and civilian infrastructure.
Shortly afterwards, the Houthi military spokesperson said Saudi airspace and airports were unsafe, renewing a warning to airlines while excluding airspace over the holy cities of Mecca and Medina.
Saudi Arabia’s civil defence authority issued early-warning alerts throughout Thursday over potential threats in the cities of Najran and Jizan, as well as the wider Najran and Jazan regions, before later saying the danger had passed.
The Saudi-led coalition said on Thursday that it had intercepted and destroyed a drone in the southwestern Saudi Arabian city of Khamis Mushait, and another launched towards the country’s southern region.
(Reporting by Mohammed Ghobari, Enas Alashray, Timour Azhari and Eman Abouhassira; Additional reporting by Allison Lampert in Montreal and Muhammad Al Gebaly in Cairo; Writing by Aidan Lewis; Editing by Hugh Lawson and Sanjeev Miglani)
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