Houthis claim ballistic missile strike on Saudi operations room at Badr camp in Aden, third attack on the city in a week

The Houthis said on Wednesday, 21 October, that they fired a ballistic missile at a Saudi “operations room” at the Badr camp in Aden, the third attack on the seat of Yemen’s internationally recognised government in a week. Neither the Saudi-led coalition nor the Yemeni government had confirmed the claim when the reports were filed.

According to the Houthi military spokesman, Yahya Saree, the strike was “precise and direct” and hit the coalition’s “operations room” at the camp. A police official in Aden told AFP that a blast “caused by a Houthi missile” was heard, and smoke was seen rising near the city’s airport. Security sources told the agency the target was a coalition site near the airport. Al Jazeera’s correspondent reported a missile aimed at the airport and presented it separately from the Houthi claim about the camp. CGTN noted there was “no immediate confirmation from the Saudi side”. No casualty figures were given by any of the outlets, and the Houthi version of the target has not been independently verified.

Aden has been hit repeatedly since the Houthis reopened the front. Two missiles landed inside the airport perimeter on Friday, a claim the Houthis made themselves, and the day before that a missile attack hit the Maasik presidential palace compound, as our report on the Houthi missiles that hit the presidential palace in Aden described, with five dead and 16 wounded according to Yemen’s health minister.

The coalition spokesman, Turki al-Malki, said five drones were intercepted, including over Medina and Saudi Arabia’s Eastern Province, and that heavy fighting was under way against the Houthis in Kahboub in the south-west, a situation the coalition called “very dangerous”. The Houthis denied targeting Saudi Arabia, according to Al Jazeera and AFP.

How the war reopened

The reports trace the escalation to July, when a truce dating from 2022 collapsed after the Houthis let an Iranian plane land in Sanaa against Riyadh’s airspace controls. The Houthis later declared a maritime blockade of Saudi Arabia and attacked its ships, territory and oil facilities, and last month they seized government-held territory on the Red Sea coast. Government forces backed by Saudi Arabia then launched the operation they call Dawn of Yemen, which aims at retaking territory up to Sanaa, held by the Houthis since 2014.

Riyadh is also absorbing attacks on its own soil: earlier this week the “Davos in the Desert” forum was postponed to 2027 amid Houthi attacks on Riyadh (Saudi Arabia: the “Davos in the Desert” investment forum is postponed to 2027 amid Houthi attacks on Riyadh).