Two missiles struck the grounds of Yemen's Aden International Airport on Friday night as a Yemenia Airways flight to Cairo was preparing to take off, Yemeni officials said, blaming the Iran-backed Houthi rebels. No one was hurt. Information Minister Moammar al-Eryani said the missiles landed about 500 meters from the plane and 100 meters from the middle of the runway, calling the strike "a direct threat to the lives of passengers and flight crews."
A security official told the Associated Press the passengers were quickly evacuated, and Aden Governor Abdulrahman Sheikh ordered housing for the stranded travelers. The Houthis said they hit a Saudi-led coalition command center and weapons depot at a military base next to the airport.
It was the second missile attack on the airport in under 10 days, after a strike on Oct. 7, and came a day after a Houthi attack on the presidential palace complex in Aden killed at least five people and injured 16.
Also on Friday, the Saudi-led coalition said it shot down a ballistic missile headed for Yanbu, plus two cruise missiles over the Red Sea and three drones over southern Saudi Arabia and Riyadh. Yanbu is a key port that lets Saudi Arabia ship oil through the Red Sea without using the Strait of Hormuz, which Reuters says Iran has largely choked off since the U.S. and Israel attacked it in February. Brent crude briefly hit $110 a barrel Friday, its highest since May.
Early Saturday, the coalition said it destroyed two Houthi ballistic missile launchers near Saada.
Photo: Houthi military spokesman Yahya Saree. Tasnim News Agency (CC BY 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons)
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