Ballistic missiles strike Aden as alerts sound across western Saudi Arabia

Three loud explosions shook Aden, the interim capital of Yemen's internationally recognised government, on Saturday, 24 October. Yemen's Interior and Information Ministries said three ballistic missiles struck Coast Guard facilities in the city. Authorities reported no confirmed casualties from those hits and began assessing the damage. Aden has been the seat of the Saudi-backed government since the Houthis captured Sanaa in 2014.

Alerts also sounded across western Saudi Arabia. The Directorate of Civil Defense warned of "potential danger" in Taif, Yanbu, Jeddah and Mecca and told residents to shelter away from windows. It rescinded the alerts about ten minutes later. The Saudi-led Coalition to Support Legitimacy in Yemen said it had intercepted and destroyed two Houthi ballistic missiles aimed at Taif and Yanbu. The Houthis are the Iran-aligned movement that holds Sanaa and much of northern Yemen.

Two accounts of what was hit

Houthi military spokesman Yahya Saree claimed the attack targeted "Saudi enemy concentrations" at the Al-Nasr camp and a naval base in Aden. He alleged that Saudi officers, among them Brig. Gen. Badr Salah al-Harbi, were overseeing troop assemblies and equipment at the sites in preparation for an offensive against the Houthis. He also warned Yemenis not to join forces mobilised by Riyadh.

The Yemeni government described different targets. It said two missiles hit the Coast Guard headquarters inside the Interior Ministry compound and a third hit another Coast Guard facility in the al-Tawahi district. Information Ministry posts on X, along with police and resident reports, indicated that strikes also landed on or near the perimeter of Aden International Airport and the port in al-Tawahi.

The attack followed a run of strikes on the city. On 15 October a missile struck the presidential palace, killing five people and wounding 16. Prime Minister Shaya al-Zindani escaped unharmed. The next day a strike near Aden International Airport landed 500 metres from a passenger airliner departing for Cairo.

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Frontline and strategic depth

The UN-brokered truce that had held since 2022 collapsed in July 2026, amid the wider US-Israeli conflict with Iran. The Houthis then declared a "blockade for blockade" against Saudi Arabia. Since then they have moved from maritime attacks to seizing Mocha and Perim Island in September and striking infrastructure.

Saturday fits that trajectory. In this analysis, the day blurred the line between the Yemeni front and Saudi territory. Missiles reached the Coast Guard in Aden, the government's seat, on the same day that two were aimed at Taif and Yanbu, according to Yemen's Saudi-backed government, whose Interior Ministry said three Houthi missiles hit coast guard sites in the city. Riyadh faces pressure on both shores of the Red Sea, and that is an assessment of 24 October, not a settled outcome.

Reuters reported on October 2, citing regional and Western officials, that Saudi Arabia is planning an offensive against the Houthis, whose spokesman says Saudi officers are overseeing forces assembling in Aden. The government has reported no confirmed casualties from the Aden strikes.