Yemen’s government says Houthis fired two missiles at Aden airport

What the report says

Yemen’s internationally recognised government said the Houthis fired two missiles at Aden International Airport on Friday, 16 October 2026, in an attack that landed near the runway and close to a plane preparing to depart. According to the government, no passengers or crew were hurt. Information Minister Moammar al-Eryani described the strike as a serious breach of international norms and said it could have caused a major humanitarian disaster.

Al Jazeera reported that the airport attack came a day after a separate strike on the presidential palace area in Aden, the seat of the government backed by Saudi Arabia. The Houthis, in a statement cited by AFP, said they had targeted a military headquarters in Aden province and a weapons depot. The competing claims could not be independently verified in the article.

The report placed the Aden incident within a broader escalation in Yemen’s war, which resumed after the Houthis seized Sanaa in 2014 and prompted a Saudi-led intervention in 2015. On the same day, government forces said they had made advances in Marib province and repelled Houthi attacks in Taiz. Al Jazeera also noted that recent fighting has intensified around key routes and cities, adding to the country’s long-running humanitarian strain.