Iran-aligned Houthis launch deadly attack on Yemeni presidential palace in escalating campaign against Saudi Arabia

By Mohammed Tawfeeq, Nic Robertson, CNN

(CNN) — Iran-aligned Houthi rebels carried out a deadly attack on the presidential Al-Maashiq Palace in Aden, the headquarters of Yemen’s internationally recognized government, on Thursday, killing five people, including two members of Prime Minister Shaya Al-Zindani’s security detail.

The missile and drone attack also injured 16 people, according to Yemen’s Health Ministry, while the Houthis claimed they were targeting an alleged Saudi military operations center inside the compound.

Yemen’s Health Minister Qasim Mohammed Buhaibeh said the casualties included security personnel and civilian employees working at the government complex, which serves as a key workplace for senior officials including the prime minister.

In a statement posted by the government’s Ministry of Information, officials said the prime minister and members of the government were safe following the attack.

The strike is one of the highest-profile attacks on the Yemeni government since its launch earlier this month of operation “Yemen’s Dawn” — the latest campaign in its long-running war against the rebels.

The internationally recognized government took Aden as its de facto capital after the Houthis seized the official capital, Sanaa, in 2014. Saudi Arabia has since backed the government in its fight against the rebels, in an effort to contain the conflict on its southern border.

The Houthis claimed Thursday’s strike was part of a declared strategy of targeting Saudi military deployments wherever they are located.

“The shelling of the Saudi enemy’s war operations headquarters in Aden comes within the framework of the declared equation of targeting Saudi military build-ups wherever they may be, and considering any military presence of the Saudi enemy a legitimate target for our forces,” the statement said.

The Yemeni government did not immediately provide additional details about the type of missiles used or the extent of the damage at the palace compound.

CNN International Diplomatic Editor Nic Robertson, who has visited the palace twice, most recently in 2019, said the complex sits on a fortified rocky outcrop overlooking Aden and is accessed via a heavily secured road.

In a statement issued later Thursday, Yemen’s Cabinet said the attack involved both missiles and drones, adding that it would not affect the government’s operations or its campaign against the Houthis.

“Yemen’s future will not be held hostage by a militia that bears arms against its own people, targets the security of its neighbors, and relies on violence to compensate for the Yemeni people’s rejection of its coup-driven agenda,” it said.

The attack came less than an hour after Houthi forces renewed warnings that Saudi airspace and airports were unsafe and that they retained the capability to “respond in kind” to ongoing Saudi attacks on Yemen.

The Houthis said Thursday that Saudi Arabia had launched 65 airstrikes and missile attacks across Yemen over the previous 24 hours, targeting Sanaa and several other provinces. Between Sept. 3 and Oct. 15, Saudi airstrikes and missile attacks had killed 120 people and wounded 307 others, the Health Ministry said — claiming that women and children accounted for about 60% of the casualties. CNN cannot independently verify the figures.

Meanwhile, Yemen’s military said Thursday that it had killed a prominent Houthi commander known as “Abu al-Fadl al-Hadrami,” describing him as the head of the group’s ballistic missile and drone operations and one of its most senior military figures. The military said Al-Hadrami had undergone specialized training in Iran — a claim CNN cannot independently verify.

Experts say the Saudi-led coalition’s targeting of senior Houthi military figures in recent weeks raises questions about whether the attack on the palace was intended to signal the Houthis’ ability to respond by striking senior government officials despite the intensified military pressure on them.

The Saudi-led coalition said Thursday that recent Houthi attacks, including strikes targeting King Khalid International Airport in Riyadh, demonstrate the growing threat posed by the Iran-aligned group to Saudi Arabia, regional security and international shipping routes.

The coalition’s spokesman Maj. Gen. Turki al-Maliki said the rebels have acquired “advanced technologies” with support from regional actors and become “the first terrorist group to possess ballistic missiles, offensive and suicide drones, and booby-trapped fast boats.”

The coalition also said military operations would continue with the aim of degrading Houthi military capabilities and removing sources of support for the group’s war effort in accordance with international humanitarian law.

Houthi attacks on Saudi Arabia have been escalating in recent days. On Thursday, the Saudi-led coalition said it had intercepted and destroyed multiple aerial threats across the kingdom, including a drone over Khamis Mushait in southwestern Saudi Arabia, a cruise missile over the Medina region in the west, and another drone in the Eastern Province.

The attacks have raised concerns about energy supplies, commercial shipping and fuel prices, with the Houthis increasingly targeting Saudi airports, oil infrastructure and maritime traffic.

Earlier this week, US President Donald Trump accused the Houthis of trying to drive up oil prices and suggested Iran was encouraging the group’s latest attacks.

“The Houthis are behaving very badly,” Trump wrote on Truth Social. “They’ve been silent for a long time, but now they’ve emerged again, probably at the behest of Iran … hitting Saudi Arabia, and purposefully trying to drive up Oil Prices, probably prior to the US elections.”

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