Yemen’s transport ministry reports fourth Houthi missile attack on Aden airport this month
Yemen Herald News 
ADEN, Yemen — Two ballistic missiles targeted Aden International Airport on Saturday afternoon, Yemen’s Ministry of Transport said, calling it the fourth such attack on the airport this month.
The ministry attributed the attack to Houthi forces. It described them as Iranian-backed.
The statement was carried by the state news agency Saba and posted on the ministry’s Facebook page.
Aden International Airport is a civilian facility protected under international law, the ministry said.
It said the airport is used to move civilians, humanitarian aid and medical evacuation cases.
The attack threatens the safety of civil aviation and of passengers and airport staff, according to the statement.
The ministry said patients, students, expatriates and travellers rely on the airport for their movements.
Accounts of what was hit differ.
Government media said three ballistic missiles were fired at Aden. Two struck the airport area and a third landed in al-Tawahi, near the port, The New Arab reported.
The Moral Guidance directorate of the Interior Ministry gave a different sequence. It said the first two missiles targeted the coastguard headquarters on the ministry’s premises, and the third hit the coastguard building in al-Tawahi.
Yemeni authorities said the coastguard headquarters and a second building were struck, Al Jazeera reported.
No casualties were reported in Aden. No confirmed information was available on the extent of the damage.
The Interior Ministry said authorities were gathering information and evidence to assess it.
Explosions were heard in al-Tawahi. The district is the main stronghold of the Southern Transitional Council.
Aidarous al-Zubaidi, who leads that council, sits on the Presidential Leadership Council.
The Houthis described their targets differently. They said they struck al-Nasr camp and the naval military base in Aden.
Yahya Saree, the Houthi military spokesman, said Saudi officers were overseeing preparations at those sites. He accused Riyadh of planning operations against the group.
Saree offered no evidence for that account. The Houthis did not say they had targeted the airport.
The Interior Ministry said the strikes formed part of a series against civilian and critical infrastructure in Aden. It said the airport has been hit several times with ballistic missiles and drones.
Aden is the seat of the internationally recognised government. It has served as the temporary capital since the Houthis took Sanaa in 2014.
Earlier in October the government accused the Houthis of attacks on airports in Aden and Mukalla. The Houthis claimed an attack on a military camp in Aden on October 21.
The strikes came on a day of attacks across the region.
Saudi Arabia’s civil defence said on X that the Houthis fired two ballistic missiles toward the Mecca and Medina regions. It said both were intercepted, and warned residents about falling shrapnel.
The Saudi Press Agency released images that appeared to show a charred, missile-shaped object that had landed in the kingdom. Al Jazeera said it could not verify them.
The Houthis rejected that account. They called the claim that they had targeted Mecca and Medina a “huge lie”.
They said their targets were three Saudi airports, oil infrastructure and an airbase.
Jasem Mohamed Albudaiwi, secretary-general of the Gulf Cooperation Council, called the attacks “heinous”. He said they showed “a blatant disregard for the lives and security of civilians”.
Al-Masirah, the Houthi-run broadcaster, said Saudi-led coalition air strikes killed civilians in Sanaa and Hodeidah the same day. Al Jazeera said that account could not be verified and that Riyadh had not commented.
Yemen Herald could not independently verify the casualty claims made by any party.
The Houthis have repeatedly targeted Saudi energy sites and airports since the 2022 ceasefire collapsed in July.
That truce was agreed under United Nations mediation. It broke down after an attack on Sanaa International Airport.
Saudi airports were struck earlier this month. King Khalid International Airport in Riyadh, Abha International Airport and King Fahd International Airport in Dammam were among the sites targeted between October 6 and October 12.
A Saudia A320 was destroyed in one of two attacks on the Riyadh airport on October 8.
A ballistic missile hit a complex housing Terminals 3 and 4 at the same airport on October 10.
Saudi Arabia’s General Authority of Civil Aviation said three Saudi citizens, among them a pilot, were killed in an attack on the Riyadh airport on October 8.
Maj. Gen. Turki al-Maliki, the coalition spokesman, called an October 10 attack on the same airport a “full-fledged war crime”.
Antonio Guterres, the United Nations secretary-general, condemned that attack.
Mohammed al-Bukhaiti, a member of the Houthi political bureau, said the attacks were retaliation for Saudi strikes on civilian infrastructure in Yemen.
The United Nations refugee agency says more than 250,000 people have been displaced inside Yemen since August.
The United Nations humanitarian plan for 2026 lists more than 22 million people in need of assistance. It records 18.3 million as acutely food insecure.
The plan puts the number of children under five with acute malnutrition at more than 2.2 million, including 516,157 severe cases.
It records 5.2 million internally displaced people, and seeks 2.16 billion dollars to reach 12 million people this year.
Saree warned airlines against using Saudi airports, with the exception of those serving Mecca and Medina.
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