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Houthi Missiles Hit Aden’s Al-Maashiq Palace, Killing Five: What Is Confirmed

Houthi ballistic missiles struck the al-Maashiq presidential palace in Aden on Thursday 15 October 2026, killing five people and wounding 16, Yemen’s health minister said. The palace is the seat of Yemen’s internationally recognised government and also hosts a command centre used by the Saudi-led coalition. The government says Prime Minister Shaya al-Zindani and other ministers were unhurt. The Houthis say they hit a Saudi-led military headquarters inside the compound. It is the first attack on the complex since the civil war flared up again in July. Hours earlier, the group also claimed it had hit a Royal Saudi Air Force Eurofighter Typhoon over Saada. Saudi Arabia has not confirmed that, and there is no independent evidence the jet was downed.

Featured image: The old town of Aden, in the crater district on the city’s southern peninsula. Photo: Jialiang Gao (peace-on-earth.org), via Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 3.0. File photo, not from the attack.

What Yemeni officials have confirmed

Casualties: Health Minister Qasim Buhaibeh said five people were killed and 16 injured “among those working to guard the site and civilian employees”, according to AFP and the BBC. Early reports were lower: AP first cited an official saying at least two people had died.
Number of missiles: Information Minister Moammar al-Eryani told the BBC that five ballistic missiles hit the palace. Witnesses quoted by AP heard at least six explosions.
Targets inside the compound: A government minister, speaking to AFP on condition of anonymity, said three missiles hit a command centre for Yemeni government forces and two hit a command centre for Saudi-led coalition forces. The minister said there were Yemeni and Saudi casualties but gave no breakdown.
Leadership: The same minister said al-Zindani was at the palace during the attack and “was not harmed in any way”. Al Jazeera reported, citing the government, that two of the prime minister’s bodyguards were among the dead.

Al-Zindani called the strike “cowardly” and a “continuation of [the Houthis’] criminal pattern of striking civilian sites and civilians”. He said the attack would not slow government operations on the Red Sea coast or other front lines.

What the Houthis say they hit

Houthi military spokesman Yahya Saree said the group struck “the Saudi enemy’s military operations headquarters in Aden”, the BBC reported. Houthi-affiliated media described the target as “the headquarters of military operations, led by Saudi officers, at the Al-Maashiq Palace in Aden, as well as weapons depots belonging to them”, according to AFP. Neither the Houthis nor the government have published imagery showing what was destroyed. The claim of hitting weapons depots has not been verified.

Al Jazeera’s correspondent in Sanaa described the strikes on the government’s headquarters as the “first of their kind” by the Houthis. AFP said it was the first attack on the complex since the war reignited in July.

A wider wave of attacks on the same day

The Aden strike was not the only one reported on 15 October:

Marib: Yemeni government forces said the Houthis fired “several ballistic missiles” at the city of Marib, in the oil-producing centre of the country (AFP).
Southern Saudi Arabia: The Saudi-led coalition said it intercepted drones launched at the kingdom’s southern region and the city of Khamis Mushait (AFP).
Medina: The coalition said it intercepted a cruise missile in the Medina region. The Houthis denied attacking Saudi territory that day and called the Medina claim false (BBC). We covered the earlier strikes on Saudi airports in our running file on Houthi attacks on Riyadh and Abha airports.
Taiz and Dhubab: Fighting intensified around Taiz, which Al Jazeera described as effectively under Houthi siege. The pro-government Homeland Shield Force said it was holding Dhubab airport on the Red Sea coast with the Giants Brigades against a Houthi attack. See our earlier report on the fighting around Dhubab near Bab al-Mandeb.

The Saudi Typhoon claim: what is and is not established

Late on Wednesday 14 October, Saree said Houthi forces had targeted a Saudi “Typhoon” fighter that took off from Taif Air Base, hitting it with a surface-to-air missile over Saada governorate. According to the Houthi news agency Saba, he said the jet “sustained a direct hit and is at risk of crashing”. The group released night-time footage showing a flash in the sky.

What can be said so far:

No confirmation from Riyadh. Anadolu Agency, Middle East Eye and Aerospace Global News all reported that Saudi authorities had not commented. The coalition’s press conference on 15 October gave detailed figures on airport attacks but, in the reports we reviewed, did not address the jet.
No wreckage, no crew report. No debris, ejection or crash site has been shown. Aerospace Global News noted that no footage of damage to an RSAF Typhoon had emerged.
The claim itself is about a hit, not a confirmed kill. Saree said the jet was “at risk of crashing”. Some social media posts and outlets shortened this to “shot down”, which goes beyond what even the Houthi statement said.
Missile type unknown. Some open-source accounts suggested a locally built Barq-series surface-to-air missile, based on separate launch footage. This is analysts’ speculation, not an official identification.

The Houthis made a similar claim on 16 September, saying they had shot down a Saudi F-15 over Marib, according to Aerospace Global News and South Korea’s SBS. The Typhoon is one of the Royal Saudi Air Force’s front-line multirole fighters, bought through the UK. For the US-built type, see our explainer on the F-16 and who flies it in the MENA region.

Saudi Arabia blames Iran

Saudi deputy minister for public diplomacy Rayed Krimly told reporters that “the escalation by the Houthis at this latest stage of the conflict is encouraged by Iran”, adding that Iran “continues to arm, train and support the Houthi militia in violation of UN Security Council resolutions” (AFP, via BBC). He said Riyadh had asked the Houthis in July to meet in Muscat and they refused. Iran had not responded at the time of the BBC report. It has previously denied arming the group and says it supports the Houthis only politically.

Coalition spokesman Major General Turki al-Maliki said Riyadh’s King Khalid International Airport had been attacked 20 times this month, killing 17 people and injuring 333, and that attacks on Abha airport had killed three and wounded 28, Daily Sabah reported. He accused the Houthis of obtaining ballistic missiles, drones and explosive-laden boats “with the help of regional actors”, and said coalition forces had destroyed 127 weapons storage sites and launch platforms in Yemen.

Why the Aden strike matters

Aden is the government’s interim capital; the Houthis have held Sanaa since 2014. A direct hit on the presidential compound, while the prime minister was inside, shows the Houthis can now reach the government’s political centre as well as Saudi cities and airports. Yemen’s health ministry says at least 1,282 people have been killed and 5,890 injured in the fighting since 6 August, the BBC reported, and the UN says about 201,000 people have been displaced.

Points to watch next: whether the government or coalition releases a full casualty breakdown, including Saudi personnel; whether Riyadh says anything about the Typhoon; and whether air defence around Aden is reinforced after a strike that, by the government’s own account, got five missiles through.

Sources

Evidence note: The casualty toll comes from Yemen’s health minister and the missile count from the information minister, both government officials. The split between government and coalition command centres comes from one unnamed minister quoted by AFP. The Houthi targeting claims and the Typhoon claim come only from the Houthis and have not been independently verified. Updated as of 16 October 2026, 06:35 GMT.

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Adrian Cole Administrator All articles

Africa defence and security correspondent at DefenceMENA, covering procurement, defence industry and armed forces across the continent.

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