The Iranian-backed Houthi militia barraged the Yemeni government’s headquarters with missiles on Thursday, officials said, as Saudi Arabia accused Iran of fueling the escalating war in the country.
The prime minister, Shayea al-Zandani, said in a statement that the Houthis had attacked Maashiq Palace in Aden, though it was unclear whether he was present at the time. Mr. al-Zandani was unhurt but two of his security detail were killed, according to a social media post by the Yemeni information minister, Moammar al-Eryani.
Videos shared on social media on Thursday show smoke rising from near the presidential palace in Aden. The extent of damage on structures in the palace compound is not clear from the videos, but smoke can be seen rising over a mile away.
Aden has served as the seat of Yemen’s internationally-recognized government since 2015, after the Houthis seized the country’s capital, Sanaa, and forced the government into exile. The Yemeni government, controlled by an eight-person Presidential Leadership Council, has operated from the Saudi capital, Riyadh, for years.
In recent weeks, Saudi warplanes have been providing aerial support to government forces as they battle the Houthis in an attempt to recapture strategic territory on the Red Sea.
Yahya Saree, a military spokesman for the militia, said in a statement on social media that the group targeted the “Saudi enemy’s military operations headquarters in Aden.”
The fighting in Yemen has increasingly spilled onto Saudi soil, with attacks on Saudi infrastructure and oil facilities, widening the regional fallout from the U.S. war on Iran, the Houthis’ primary backer.
Rayed Krimly, the Saudi foreign ministry’s deputy minister for public diplomacy, told reporters on Thursday that Iran had encouraged the latest escalation in Yemen, and continued to “arm, train and support the Houthis,” according to a statement shared by the ministry. When asked for comment, the Iranian Embassy in London said officials from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs would respond.
Mr. Krimly said Saudi Arabia had recently asked the Houthis to meet for talks in Muscat, Oman, but the group had refused. Dhaifullah al-Shami, a Houthi political figure, denied that assertion. “If Saudi Arabia wants to extricate itself from the predicament it is in, it should end its blockade of and aggression against the Yemeni people,” he said in a statement.
On Saturday, the Houthis carried out their deadliest attack on the kingdom so far, hitting the main airport in Riyadh with a cruise missile and killing at least 13 people.
Maj. Gen. Turki al-Maliki, the spokesman for the Saudi-led military coalition in Yemen, said in a news conference on Thursday that the Houthis had become the first militia of its kind to obtain ballistic missiles, explosive drones and bomb-laden boats, weapons he said the group acquired “with the assistance of regional parties.” Saudi officials routinely use that phrase as a veiled reference to Iran.
He said that the Houthis had fired more than 1,000 ballistic missiles and over 1,100 drones at Saudi Arabia since July, hitting airports in Riyadh and other cities in the kingdom’s south and east. The attacks have killed 19 people and wounded almost 400 others, he said.
The Houthis have frequently accused Saudi Arabia of attacking infrastructure in Yemen. Last week, media affiliated with the group accused Saudi Arabia of bombing an airport in Sanaa. On Tuesday, Saudi strikes on an oil facility in Hodeidah, a port controlled by the militia, killed at least two people, according to a spokesman for the Houthi-run health ministry.
Shuaib Almosawa contributed reporting from Sanaa, Yemen and Saeed Al-Batati from al-Mukalla, Yemen. Aric Toler contributed reporting from Kansas City.
The post Iran-Backed Houthis Strike Presidential Palace, Yemen Says appeared first on New York Times.
