Follow-Up: Houthi Missiles Hit Aden Presidential Palace During Cabinet Meeting, Killing 5 and Wounding 16

ADEN, Yemen — Houthi forces fired multiple ballistic missiles, supported by drones, at the Al-Maashiq presidential palace in Aden, Yemen's southern interim capital, on Thursday, Oct. 15. Health Minister Qasim Mohammed Buhaibeh said five people were killed and 16 wounded, with the dead including palace security personnel and civilian employees; CNN reported that two of those killed were members of Prime Minister Shaya Mohsen al-Zindani's security detail. Al-Zindani was chairing a government meeting inside the palace when the attack occurred. Information Minister Moammar al-Eryani said the prime minister and the members of the government were unharmed.

Accounts of the number of missiles differed. A Yemeni government official told Xinhua that six ballistic missiles were fired, and Aden residents reported hearing a series of loud explosions around the palace; the BBC reported that five ballistic missiles struck the palace compound. Yemen's cabinet confirmed in a statement that both missiles and drones were used in the attack, saying it would not affect the government's operations or its campaign against the Houthis. Al-Zindani condemned the attack, saying the government would continue to carry out its duties and would keep fighting the Houthis on the Red Sea coast and other front lines.

Houthi military spokesman Yahya Saree said in a statement that the strike targeted what he described as the Saudi military operations headquarters inside the palace compound, as part of the group's declared policy of targeting Saudi military build-ups wherever they may be and treating any Saudi military presence as a legitimate target. The Houthi-run SABA news agency said the headquarters was run by Saudi officers and that there were weapons depots inside the compound. Reuters noted that the Houthi claims could not be independently verified.

It was the first Houthi attack on Al-Maashiq Palace in the current round of fighting, which resumed in full last month. Government forces launched an offensive codenamed "Yemen's Dawn" earlier this month and last week recovered ground near the Bab el-Mandeb Strait. Turki al-Maliki, spokesman for the Saudi-led coalition, said in Riyadh on Thursday that the Houthis had attacked King Khalid International Airport in Riyadh 20 times since the start of October, killing 17 people and wounding 333, and that the coalition had destroyed 127 Houthi weapons storage facilities and missile launch platforms, calling on the group to halt attacks on civilians and civilian infrastructure. Agence France-Presse reported that the Houthis also fired several ballistic missiles at Marib, in Yemen's oil-rich center, on Thursday. GSM has previously reported the Oct. 10 attack on Riyadh airport and the coalition's Oct. 12 retaliatory airstrikes on Sanaa airport.

Aden has served as the interim capital of Yemen's internationally recognized government since 2015. Al-Maashiq Palace, set on a fortified rocky outcrop overlooking the waterfront in Aden's Crater district, is a principal workplace of the prime minister and cabinet. The government relocated south after the Houthis seized the capital, Sanaa, in 2014, and a Saudi-led coalition intervened in 2015 in support of the government.

Source: GSM · USA (original Chinese edition)

Photo: 图：也门亚丁克雷特区临海一带，迈阿希克总统府即位于该区岩丘之上，为此次袭击目标（资料图）。图片来源：Christina Hecker，CC BY-SA 4.0，经维基共享资源（Wikimedia Commons）发布。The waterfront of Aden's Crater district in Yemen; Al-Maashiq Palace, the target of the strike, sits on a rocky outcrop in the district (file photo). Photo: Christina Hecker, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons.

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