Strikes Attributed to Houthis Target Yemen’s Presidential Palace

Yemen’s Houthi rebels targeted the presidential palace in Aden with two missiles on Friday, a police official told AFP, hours after Saudi-led forces reported intercepting attacks launched by the group against the kingdom.

Aden, the stronghold of Yemen’s Saudi-backed, internationally recognised government, has faced repeated attacks since the country’s long-dormant civil war reignited in July.

Two eyewitnesses told AFP that ambulances were seen entering the presidential palace compound following the incident. The sprawling complex comprises several buildings, including facilities used by government officials and Saudi-led coalition forces.

Shortly before the reported attack, residents and an AFP journalist said they heard two explosions in the city.

The Houthis, who control the capital, Sanaa, in northern Yemen, most recently targeted the perimeter of Aden’s airport on Wednesday. The group had also claimed responsibility for attacks on a naval base and a military camp the previous week.

Meanwhile, the Saudi-led coalition fighting the Iran-backed Houthis said on Friday that it had intercepted and destroyed a drone near Riyadh, as well as a ballistic missile launched towards Saudi Arabia’s southern region.

In two posts on X, coalition spokesman Turki al-Malki confirmed that forces had destroyed the drone in Riyadh province and intercepted what he described as “a ballistic missile launched by the terrorist Houthi militia toward the southern region”.

Earlier on Friday, the coalition announced that it had intercepted and destroyed a Houthi drone over the Mecca region. The Houthis denied targeting the area, home to Islam’s holiest city.

“A drone launched by the terrorist Houthi militia has been intercepted and destroyed in the Mecca region,” Malki said in a post on X.

Houthi military spokesman Yahya Saree dismissed the Saudi announcement as “a massive and egregious fabrication”.

Several hours later, Malki reported another interception, saying coalition forces had destroyed a drone over the Medina region, home to Islam’s second-holiest city.

Yemen’s civil war began in 2014 when Houthi forces seized control of Sanaa. Saudi Arabia intervened the following year in support of the internationally recognised government.

A ceasefire reached in 2022 brought a period of relative calm, but the conflict reignited this summer, raising fears of renewed instability.

More than a decade of fighting has devastated Yemen, triggering one of the world’s worst humanitarian crises. The United Nations estimates that the country, one of the poorest globally, has a population of approximately 42 million.