Yemen’s Houthi movement fired a volley of missiles at the Maashiq presidential palace complex in the southern city of Aden on Thursday, killing at least two security guards in the most audacious strike against the seat of Yemen’s internationally recognised government since the country’s civil war reignited this summer.
Information Minister Moammar al-Eryani said five missiles were launched at the palace complex, the official headquarters of the Saudi-backed government. Two government officials confirmed that two guards were killed in the attack. A separate report, citing government military sources, put the toll at four killed and ten wounded — figures that remain unverified and should be treated with caution.
Witnesses reported at least six explosions in the vicinity of the complex, and an AFP journalist at the scene saw columns of smoke rising over the palace. Prime Minister Shaya al-Zindani and members of his cabinet, who were inside the complex at the time, were unharmed, the government said.
Houthi military spokesperson Yahya Saree claimed responsibility, saying the strike had targeted what he described as a “Saudi military operations headquarters” — a facility he said was run by Saudi officers and used to store weapons, according to the Houthi-run Saba news agency. The Houthis framed the attack as part of a declared policy of targeting Saudi military build-ups on Yemeni soil.
Thursday’s strike is the first attack on the palace area since Yemen’s civil war flared back to life in July 2026, and it marks a sharp escalation in a conflict that had already been intensifying between the Houthi rebels and a Saudi-led coalition. The rebels have in recent days warned airlines against using Saudi airspace, and coalition spokesperson Turki al-Maliki said attacks on King Khalid International Airport had killed 17 people and injured 333 between October 7 and October 11.
The attack on Maashiq carries particular symbolic weight. Aden has served as the government’s base since the Houthis seized the capital, Sanaa, and a direct missile strike on the presidential palace complex signals a Houthi willingness to hit the political heart of the government it is fighting — and to test the Saudi coalition’s ability to defend it.
The strike fits a pattern of rapidly widening confrontation. Since the civil war reignited in July, clashes between the rebels and the Saudi-led coalition have steadily escalated, moving from frontline battles into strikes on government installations and civilian infrastructure alike. The Houthi warning to airlines over Saudi airspace, issued days earlier, had already signalled that the group’s declared targeting policy was expanding beyond Yemen’s borders. Thursday’s attack on Aden now brings that expansion home — a message, delivered in missiles, that even the palace itself is no longer beyond reach.
