Yemen's Houthis attacked Aden airport on Wednesday, government officials said, after the Iran-aligned group warned people to evacuate the facility as fighting escalated in the country caught in the wider Middle East conflict.

Source: Reuters

The strike followed the group's evacuation warning for the airport earlier on Wednesday. Read the earlier warning story

Residents in the southern port city, where the internationally recognised, Saudi-backed government is based, said they heard an explosion near the airport — a humanitarian lifeline and the main gateway to southern Yemen. Residents said explosions had also been heard elsewhere in the city before the warning was issued.

Air traffic was halted after the strike, two transport ministry officials told Reuters. An aid source said some UN staff left the airport shortly before the attack and no one was hurt. The International Organization for Migration said its personnel travelling through Aden were safe and accounted for after reports of an attack.

Houthi spokesperson Yahya Saree said in a post on X that the evacuation warning was prompted by what he said was the presence of a Saudi military cargo aircraft delivering weapons. That claim is the group's own account; there was no immediate comment from Saudi authorities.

The Houthis, who control the capital Sanaa and most of northwestern Yemen, have repeatedly targeted Aden airport in the past. The attack comes as fighting between the Houthis and the Saudi-led coalition backing Yemen's government has intensified in recent weeks, opening a volatile new front in the wider US-Israeli war on Iran, Reuters reported.

Last month, Houthi forces advanced towards the Bab el-Mandeb Strait, one of the world's most strategically important shipping routes, which lies opposite the Strait of Hormuz across the Arabian Peninsula — a reminder that escalation in Yemen quickly reaches the sea lanes that carry Gulf oil and goods used by Indian and Punjabi workers across the region.