The houthis aden airport missile strike halted takeoff preparations for a Yemenia Airways Cairo flight on Friday, according to the Aden Security Department, which said no casualties were reported.

Airport targeted again in under a week

The Aden Security Department attributed the strike to the Houthis and said it was the second attack on the facility in less than a week. Yemen's Iran-aligned Houthi group claimed responsibility for the two missiles that hit Aden International Airport on Friday.

• •Two missiles struck the airport on Friday while a Yemenia Airways flight bound for Cairo was preparing for takeoff
• •The Aden Security Department blamed the Houthis
• •The Houthis have also targeted the presidential palace in Aden, Yemen's interim capital, in recent days

What the Houthis say they targeted

In a statement attributed to a military source, the Houthis said the attack hit a weapons depot and the Saudi forces' command headquarters in the Badr camp in Aden province.

Coalition interceptions and alerts in Saudi Arabia

The Saudi-led military coalition reported a series of interceptions over the same period, saying it downed a ballistic missile headed for Yanbu, a key Saudi oil hub on the Red Sea.

• •The coalition said it destroyed two cruise missiles over the Red Sea and three drones over Saudi Arabia's Southern and Riyadh regions, without identifying the attackers
• •Saudi Civil Defense issued an alert early on Saturday for Abha in southwestern Saudi Arabia near the Yemeni border before giving an all-clear; earlier alerts covered the Jazan region and Khamis Mushait
• •Houthi-affiliated media reported strikes east of Saada early on Saturday, and the coalition said it destroyed two ballistic missile launchers in that area

Escalation and wider impact

Fighting between the Houthis and the Saudi-led coalition resumed after a Saudi strike on Sanaa International Airport in July, with the Houthis targeting airports, oil facilities and other infrastructure. The Houthis seized Sanaa in 2014, forcing the internationally recognised government south; a Saudi-led intervention began the following year, and a 2022 truce held until this year.

A Houthi-run health ministry spokesperson said on Friday that 124 civilians had been killed and 327 wounded in what he called "Saudi aggression" since the escalation began on September 3; the figures could not be independently verified.

The escalation has reached energy markets. Brent crude briefly touched $110 a barrel on Friday for the first time since May amid security concerns over shipping and energy supplies. Yanbu matters to those supplies because it allows Saudi crude exports to ship via the Red Sea, bypassing the Strait of Hormuz, which has been largely throttled by Iran since US and Israeli attacks on Iran began in February.

Aid agencies have warned that Yemen's humanitarian crisis is worsening rapidly as the fighting continues. The Aden Security Department reiterated that the airport strike was the second attack on the facility in less than a week.