Houthis say ballistic missile hit Saudi operations room at Aden’s Badr Camp, as drones target Mukalla airport


Gray smoke rises over buildings in Aden on October 21, 2026, in a photo an X user said showed Badr Camp near the airport

Smoke rises in Aden on October 21, 2026, in a photo the X user Abu Ali al-Qasemi said showed Badr Camp near the airport; Mereja could not verify where or when it was taken. Photo: @a_ali_alqasemi via X

The Houthis said they fired a ballistic missile at a Saudi operations room in Badr Camp, next to Aden's international airport, on Wednesday morning, the third attack on Aden in a week, Al Jazeera reported.

Yahya Saree, the military spokesman of the Houthi movement, also known as Ansar Allah, said in a statement carried by the group's Saba news agency that "our armed forces were able to target the Saudi enemy's operations room in the Badr camp in Aden with a ballistic missile," adding that "the strike was precise and direct," according to Al Jazeera's translation. Badr Camp sits in the Khor Maksar district, next to the airport. Al Jazeera reported that a powerful explosion was heard in the city and that a police official said smoke was rising near the airport. There was no immediate comment from the Yemeni government or the Saudi-led coalition, the network reported.

The Associated Press reported that an official at Yemen's transportation ministry said a civilian plane had taken off shortly before the strike, that the departure hall was evacuated, that operations were suspended for a time and that the runway was not damaged. Local sources told Al Arabiya English that the missile was launched from the al-Sabrah area south of Ibb.

Residents and journalists in Aden posted on X within minutes. The account of Abu Ali al-Qasemi (@a_ali_alqasemi) posted a photo of a column of gray smoke over rooftops and wrote in Arabic that smoke was "rising from Badr Camp in the city of Aden at this moment," in Mereja's translation. Another user, @alrougui, posted "Urgent, Aden: sound of an explosion near Aden airport," with a photo that was widely shared. Ali Rida Sbeity, whose X profile describes him as a field journalist and lists RT, repeated the Houthi claim in Arabic and English. An account called Dlovan_syr wrote that, "according to some information," Saudi and Pakistani forces and foreign fighters from Syria were present at the camp, a claim Mereja could not verify and which neither Riyadh nor Islamabad has addressed. Translations from Arabic are Mereja's unless otherwise noted.

A few hours later, three drones attacked Al-Rayyan International Airport in Mukalla, the capital of Hadramout province in eastern Yemen, Bran Press, a Yemeni news site, reported, citing the government's Hadramout TV and attributing the attack to the Houthis, while local sources said the drones were believed to be Houthi. The channel said the drones targeted the runway and the airport's electricity department and that no injuries had been recorded at the time, and it broadcast footage it said showed the attack, according to Bran Press, which said it was the first attack of its kind on the Mukalla airport since the military escalation resumed in July. The Yemeni account aboosama, which cited Reuters as saying there were reports of an attack on the Mukalla airport, wrote that the day also brought new airstrikes on Houthi positions east of Mokha, on the Red Sea coast, and renewed clashes near Jabal Han and the old airport west of Taiz.

This is the third time Aden has been hit in a week. On Thursday, the Houthis launched a deadly missile attack on the presidential palace in Aden, and on Friday two missiles landed within the perimeter of the city's airport, Al Jazeera reported. Mereja reported last week on the attack on the Maashiq presidential palace and on the strike at Aden airport that disrupted Yemenia flights.

The Saudi-led coalition said on Wednesday that it was fighting a "large-scale attack" by the Houthis in Kahboub, in southwestern Yemen, under intense bombardment, and a coalition spokesperson described the situation as "very dangerous," according to Al Jazeera. Clashes there were continuing under "intensive air cover" by coalition and Yemeni forces, the spokesperson said.

In a separate statement, coalition spokesman Turki al-Malki wrote on X that drones launched toward the kingdom had been intercepted and destroyed in the Medina region and the Eastern Province, and he later reported a fifth drone intercepted in the Eastern Province, Al Jazeera reported. Al-Malki did not say who launched them. Saree denied that the Houthis had carried out any "deep" operations inside Saudi territory.

Fighting in Yemen escalated sharply last month when the Houthis seized strategic territory along the Red Sea coast, and the government, backed by Saudi Arabia, has answered with a counteroffensive called Operation Dawn of Yemen, which aims to retake territory including Sanaa, the capital, which the Houthis have held since 2014, according to Al Jazeera.

Secretary of State Marco Rubio, answering questions in Mumbai on Tuesday mostly about Ukraine and India, said demand for American air-defense interceptors was high around the world. "I also talked to Saudi Arabia today; they'd like interceptors," he said, according to a State Department transcript. He added, "In the case of Saudi Arabia in particular, we obviously have an airfield presence there, and so we defend that presence. We're doing other things to help them; other countries are as well."

Speaking about fuel prices in the same session, Rubio said the pressure on world energy markets was "not just the Straits of Hormuz anymore; it's pipelines in Saudi Arabia that have been targeted by the Houthis," along with the war between Russia and Ukraine, according to the transcript.

Sources

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *