Yemen’s Iran-backed Houthis launched missiles at Aden International Airport late on Friday, a day after carrying out a deadly attack on the presidential palace in the port city.
Aden has been the seat of Yemen's internationally recognised government since 2015, when the Houthis seized the capital city, Sanaa, igniting a civil war.
The Houthis are now fighting against the government and Saudi Arabia.
Yemeni Information Minister Moammar Eryani said two missiles landed near the airport's runway, 500 metres from an aircraft that was preparing to take off. He said civilians on the plane are all safe and described the attack as a "grave violation of international laws and norms”.
The Aden Security Department said the incident was the second attack on the airport in less than a week.
The Houthis, in a statement attributed to a military source, said an attack was launched against “the Saudi forces’ command headquarters in the Badr camp in Aden province”, as well as a weapons depot. The security department said a Yemenia Airways flight bound for Cairo was preparing for take off when the missiles landed.
The attack comes after five people were killed in a Houthi attack on Al Maashiq presidential palace. It was the first time the group attacked the palace since fighting in Yemen resumed last month after a four-year lull.
Marwan Ali Noman, political adviser to Yemen's Foreign Minister Afrah Al Zouba, told The National that the Houthis will not succeed in disrupting public life or undermining state authority as the government pushes ahead with a military and political campaign against them.
"Aden will remain the centre of government operations despite the deadly Houthi attack on the city's presidential palace," he said.
Heavy fighting continues between government forces and the Houthis. The renewed conflict has raised fears of a further deterioration in the country's humanitarian crisis. Aid agencies have warned that conditions are worsening rapidly.
Yemen has become another front in the wider regional war that began with US and Israeli strikes on Iran in February.
Yemeni government forces said on Friday that troops had advanced in Marib province, north-east of Sanaa. Military spokesman Majed Al Nazili said government forces, with air support, had made significant “territorial gains” in the eastern part of the province, securing “key positions”.
More than 430 Houthi fighters have been “neutralised” in the past 24 hours, he said, while destroying or disabling more than 100 of their vehicles and military assets.
Meanwhile, the Saudi-led coalition fighting against the Houthis released aerial footage, dated October 16, that showed what it described as strikes on a Houthi weapons-smuggling operation in the Red Sea port city of Hodeidah.
The nearly six-minute black-and-white video, which identifies the date and location at the start, shows apparent air strikes on lorries, small boats and what appear to be storage sites.
