SANAA: Yemen’s Houthis said Saudi strikes on a petrol station and a market killed more than a dozen people on Wednesday, while the Iran-backed group targeted the perimeter of the airport in government stronghold Aden.
The Houthis last month launched a lightning offensive in Yemen, reigniting a long frozen civil war against the Saudi-backed, internationally recognised government there.
They have also launched sustained attacks on Saudi Arabia itself, the world’s biggest crude exporter, rattling global markets already volatile from the wider Middle East war.
On Wednesday, Houthi broadcaster Almasirah reported 14 dead “and 15 wounded, including women and children in a preliminary toll,” in attacks it blamed on Saudi Arabia in the northwestern Jawf province, where it reported strikes on a market and a petrol station.
In Aden, a Houthi missile fell inside the perimeter of the airport shortly before the group issued a call to evacuate the area, a local police source told AFP. The group targeted the airport again later, another police source said.
“Our armed forces call on those present at Aden airport to immediately evacuate due to the presence of a military cargo plane belonging to the Saudi enemy transporting weapons to kill the sons of the Yemeni people,” Houthi military spokesman Yahya Saree said on Telegram.
The first strike happened while a Saudi military aircraft was at the airport, but the plane “was not hit and took off shortly afterward,” the first police source said.
The second attack targeted an area “under Saudi forces’ control inside the perimeter of Aden airport,” the second Aden police official said.
Both sources spoke on condition of anonymity due to security concerns.
Repeated Aden attacks
The Houthis have targeted Aden several times in recent weeks.
They have also intensified attacks on their Saudi foe, while they battle the government it backs in Aden, shifting the focus of the Middle East war that erupted with US-Israeli strikes on Iran in February.
On Saturday, a police source told AFP that the Houthis targeted a Saudi coalition military position near the Aden airport. It was also targeted the previous week.
Two missiles also landed within the airport perimeter earlier this month, a day after a deadly missile attack struck the presidential palace in Aden.
In July, a fragile 2022 truce fell apart after the Houthis allowed an Iranian plane to land in Yemen’s capital Sanaa in defiance of Saudi control over Yemeni airspace, setting off a spate of attacks.
Later, the Houthis declared a maritime blockade of Saudi Arabia and began hitting its ships, territory and oil facilities, before seizing Yemen’s entire Red Sea coast in a lightning campaign.
Meanwhile, the Houthis have reported frequent Saudi airstrikes.
