Houthis attack Aden, say Saudi strikes kill 16

Yemen’s Houthis said on Saturday they had attacked the southern port city of Aden, the interim seat of the Saudi-backed government, after accusing Riyadh of killing 16 people in strikes on the capital Sanaa and the Red Sea port city of Hodeida, AP reported.

Houthi military spokesman Yahya Saree said the group’s forces had targeted “Saudi enemy concentrations at the so-called Al-Nasr camp and the naval base in Aden”. Yemen’s interior ministry said the attack hit the coast guards’ headquarters and another coast guard building, the Korea Times reported.

The Houthis’ Al-Masirah outlet earlier reported a series of Saudi strikes on Sanaa, including one on a house that killed at least four people and wounded several others. A separate strike on a residential building for cement factory workers in Sanaa governorate killed six women and one child and wounded three others, the broadcaster said. It later reported that five people — the head of a family, two of his children and his two wives — were killed in a strike on their home in Hodeida, blaming Saudi Arabia. All of the casualty figures come from Houthi media reports and have not been independently verified.

Earlier on Saturday, the Saudi-led coalition said it had intercepted two missiles targeting the western Saudi cities of Taif and Yanbu, and Saudi civil defence alerts for Taif, Yanbu, Mecca and Jeddah were withdrawn minutes later.

The US Mission to the United Arab Emirates and the US embassy in Riyadh said Washington’s travel advisories for both Gulf countries were updated to reflect an increase in potential armed attacks by the Iranian-supported Houthis. Egypt has suggested sending troops to help defend Saudi Arabia, while Britain and France have offered their forces to protect the kingdom.

Yemen’s civil war, pitting the Iran-backed Houthis against the Saudi-supported and internationally recognised government, had been dormant since a ceasefire in 2022 but erupted again in July amid the wider West Asia war.

Sources

• The Hindu (AP): https://www.thehindu.com/news/international/houthis-attack-yemens-aden-say-saudi-strikes-kill-16/article71620895.ece
• Korea Times (AP): https://www.koreatimes.co.kr/world/20261025/houthis-attack-yemens-aden-say-saudi-strikes-kill-16
• Dawn (AFP): https://www.dawn.com/news/2039499
• L’Orient Today (AFP): https://today.lorientlejour.com/article/1551954/deadly-saudi-strikes-hit-houthi-held-yemeni-capital-sanaa.html