Yemen’s Houthi militia attacked the Presidential Palace in the southern city of Aden with five missiles on Thursday, the Information Minister Moammar Al Eryani said. He added that the Prime Minister and government members were safe.
It was the first attack on Aden since the Houthis and government forces resumed fighting last month after a four-year lull in the civil war.
The southern port city has been the seat of Yemen’s government since the Iran-backed Houthis took over the capital Sanaa in 2014, prompting a military intervention by a Saudi-led coalition a year later.
“We reassure the children of our Yemeni people that the Prime Minister, and all members of the government are safe and well,” Mr Al Eryani said in a statement. He described the attack as a terrorist act.
A statement from the Council of Ministers said the attack involved missiles as well as drones and caused deaths and injuries among security personnel.
It said the attack "clearly exposes the militia’s inability to confront the Yemeni people’s resolve to restore state authority across the entire national territory and to put an end to its Iranian-backed subversive agenda".
The cabinet said the attack would not weaken the government’s resolve or deter it from carrying out its national and constitutional responsibilities. “Aden will remain the hub for the operations of state institutions as they carry out their duties towards citizens,” the statement said.
The Houthi-run Saba News Agency reported earlier that the target was a military operations headquarters at the palace, allegedly run by Saudi officers, and associated weapons depots. The agency quoted a military source as saying the headquarters had been hit.
Houthi military spokesman Yahya Saree said that the attack "falls within the framework of the declared policy to strike Saudi troop concentrations wherever they may be, and to treat any military presence of the Saudi enemy as a legitimate target for our forces, wherever it is located".