Blast heard in Yemen’s Aden as Houthis claim attack on military camp | News

Smoke seen rising near airport in Aden as Houthis say they attacked a military camp with a ballistic missile.

A powerful explosion has been heard in Aden in southern Yemen, an Al Jazeera journalist and police official said, as Yemen’s Houthi rebels say they launched a ballistic missile attack on a military camp in the city.

A police official said on Wednesday that smoke was rising near the international airport in Aden, the seat of power of Yemen’s internationally recognised government.

Houthi spokesman Yahya Saree said in a statement that the attack targeted a military camp used by the Saudi-led coalition, which has been battling the Houthis since a 2022 ceasefire in Yemen’s war collapsed earlier this year.

“Our armed forces were able to target the Saudi enemy’s operations room in the Badr camp in Aden with a ballistic missile,” Saree said in a statement, adding that “the strike was precise and direct”.

There was no immediate comment on the claim from the Yemeni government or the Saudi-led coalition.

The attack was the third on Aden in a week. On Friday, two missiles landed within the perimeter of the city’s airport. The Houthis, an armed group also known as Ansar Allah (Supporters of God) claimed the attack.

A day earlier, the Houthis launched a deadly missile attack on the presidential palace in Aden, hitting command centres located inside the Al-Maashiq presidential compound, which is used by government forces and the Saudi-led coalition.

Elsewhere in Yemen, the Saudi-led coalition said its forces were engaged in heavy fighting with the Houthis in Kahboub in southwestern Yemen.

A coalition spokesperson said that they were trying to repel a large-scale attack and were experiencing intense Houthi bombardment, describing the situation as “very dangerous”

Clashes are ongoing under “intensive air cover” by coalition and Yemeni forces, the spokesperson said.

Fighting in Yemen escalated sharply last month when the Houthis seized strategic territory along the Red Sea coast.

Government forces, backed by Saudi Arabia, have been responding with a counteroffensive and started Operation Dawn of Yemen, which aims to seize and recapture territory from the Houthis, including Sanaa, which has been under the armed group’s control since 2014.