Yemen’s Houthis have conducted a missile strike on the presidential palace in the southern city of Aden, where the internationally recognized, Saudi-backed government is located.

The group claimed the strike killed several Saudi officials and mercenaries, while the government acknowledged only two fatalities among security guards.

The Al-Maashiq presidential palace was hit by at least five missiles on Thursday, with footage circulating online showing black smoke and a large plume of dust emitting from the compound. Yemeni Information Minister Moammar al-Eryani said the country’s prime minister and cabinet members were at the compound during the strike yet escaped the attack unharmed.

The militant group, known officially as the Ansar Allah movement, said that the compound served as military operations headquarters run by Saudi officers and was being used as a weapons depot. There were multiple casualties at the site, the Houthis claimed.

“The strike on the Saudi enemy’s military operations headquarters in Aden falls within the framework of the previously announced policy: targeting Saudi military concentrations wherever they may be and considering any military presence of the Saudi enemy a legitimate target for our forces, wherever it is located,” the group’s military spokesman, Yahya Saree, has said.

Yemen has remained locked in a civil war since 2014, with the situation further aggravated by a Saudi-led intervention launched in March 2015 to prevent the then-imminent Houthi takeover. The fighting waned after a United Nations-brokered truce in 2022, but recently returned to all-out warfare.

Throughout September, Ansar Allah inflicted a decisive defeat on pro-Saudi forces on Yemen’s western coast, reaching the strategic Bab-el Mandeb Strait. The most intense fighting is currently around the country’s third-largest city of Taiz, which is controlled by the Aden-based government. Houthi forces have cut off the city and report daily advances, tightening the encirclement.

The renewed fighting has been marked by long-range attacks by both sides. The Houthis have repeatedly attacked Saudi oil installations and international airports, warning air carriers against operating in the kingdom altogether. Riyadh has carried out air strikes against the Houthis, and both sides have repeatedly accused each another of hitting civilian targets.