ADEN, Yemen — A Cairo-bound Yemenia Airways flight was preparing for takeoff on Friday when two missiles landed on the grounds of Aden International Airport, the Aden Security Department said. No one was hurt.
On Saturday, the Houthis claimed the strike. Through the Saba news agency, the group said it had aimed at a Saudi forces command headquarters and a weapons depot at the Badr camp, next to the airport.
How close did the missiles come? Yemen’s information minister, Moammar Al-Eryani, put numbers on it in a post on X: about 500 metres from the aircraft, and about 100 metres from the centre of the runway. The flight was IY 612.
Al-Eryani said the strike could have caused a major humanitarian disaster. He accused the Houthis of threatening civilian aviation and breaking international law.
The airport has now been attacked twice in less than a week, the security department said.
Houthi military spokesman Yahya Saree said the attacks fit the group’s declared policy. Saudi reinforcements, he said, will be targeted wherever they are located.
Yanbu was in the crosshairs that day too. Reuters reported that a Saudi-led military coalition intercepted a ballistic missile headed for the Red Sea port. From Yanbu, Saudi Arabia can ship crude without sending tankers through the Strait of Hormuz.
Two cruise missiles were destroyed over the Red Sea, the coalition added, and three drones came down in Saudi Arabia’s southern and Riyadh regions, Reuters reported. The coalition did not say who launched them.
Oil traders reacted fast. Brent crude briefly touched $110 a barrel on Friday, its first time since May, Reuters reported.
Behind the airport strike sits a war that has started up again. The Houthis face a Saudi-led coalition backing Yemen’s government, and aid agencies warn conditions for ordinary Yemenis are worsening rapidly, according to Reuters.
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