Yemen’s Houthis fired missiles at the presidential palace complex in the southern city of Aden on Thursday, killing five people, the government said, in the first strike of the current conflict on the seat of the country’s internationally recognised government. The Houthis Aden attack targeted the Al-Maashiq palace, home to Yemen’s Saudi-backed administration.
Yemen’s cabinet said the attack involved missiles and drones. Health Minister Qasim Buhaibeh said five people were killed and 16 wounded in the assault on the government’s official headquarters at the presidential complex, with the casualties including guards and civilian employees. Witnesses told Reuters they heard loud explosions near the palace. Yemen’s prime minister and cabinet members were safe following the attack, Information Minister Moammar al-Eryani said.
The Houthis Aden attack is the first in the current conflict between the Iran-aligned Houthis and Saudi Arabia to strike the Al-Maashiq palace directly, marking a sharp escalation.
How the Houthis Aden attack unfolded
Houthi military spokesperson Yahya Saree said the group’s fighters had bombed what he described as the Saudi military operations headquarters in Aden, as part of a 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 said it could not independently verify the claims.
The Saudi-led coalition, meanwhile, listed dozens of Houthi attacks on Saudi infrastructure in recent weeks, underscoring the escalation of the conflict. The coalition’s detailed accounting of those attacks signals that Riyadh views the Houthis Aden attack as part of a broader pattern rather than an isolated incident. Officials in the region will be watching for whether the strike on the palace prompts a change in the coalition’s military posture in the weeks ahead.
Fighting between the Houthis and Saudi-backed forces resumed last month, and aid agencies have warned of rapidly worsening humanitarian conditions in Yemen.
Houthis Aden attack marks escalation in wider regional war
The strike opens a new front in the wider regional war that began with US and Israeli strikes on Iran in February. Last week, government forces launched a campaign to recapture areas controlled by the Houthis, recovering ground near the Bab el-Mandeb Strait, a key global shipping artery.
Residents of Taiz, northwest of Aden, have said they face intensifying bombardment and dwindling supplies as the Houthis tighten their grip on areas around the city, Yemen’s third-largest. The Houthis Aden attack has heightened fears that the fighting could spread further across southern Yemen.
What happens next after the Houthis Aden attack
The humanitarian stakes of the escalation are severe. Aid agencies have warned that renewed fighting is rapidly worsening conditions in a country already enduring one of the worst humanitarian crises after years of war. The Bab el-Mandeb Strait, near which government forces have recently recovered ground, is one of the world’s most important shipping lanes, and any disruption there carries consequences far beyond Yemen’s borders.
The Houthis Aden attack also underscores the group’s expanding reach. Striking the seat of Yemen’s internationally recognised government, far from Houthi-held territory, demonstrates a capability that is likely to alarm Riyadh and its allies. Saudi Arabia has spent years leading a coalition against the Houthis, and the listing of dozens of recent Houthi attacks on Saudi infrastructure suggests the kingdom is preparing the ground — diplomatically and militarily — for a forceful response to the Houthis Aden attack.
Diplomatic efforts to end Yemen’s wider war have repeatedly stalled, and the latest escalation is likely to make renewed talks even harder. With the Houthis demonstrating they can strike at the heart of the government’s seat of power, and the coalition cataloguing attacks on its own infrastructure, both sides appear to be settling in for a prolonged confrontation rather than a negotiated settlement. For now, the residents of Aden are left counting the cost of an attack that brought the war to the doorstep of the presidency itself.