Aden Airport Missile Attack: Houthis Strike Near Cairo Flight

The Aden airport missile attack on Friday night, Oct. 16, 2026, put two Houthi missiles inside the grounds of Yemen’s main government-held airport while a passenger flight to Cairo was preparing to take off. Yemeni officials said no one was hurt, but it was the second strike on Aden International Airport in less than 10 days and the second major attack on the southern port city in two days.

Information Minister Moammar al-Eryani said in a post on X that Flight 612 was getting ready for departure when the missiles hit. According to Anadolu Agency, he said they landed about 500 meters (1,640 feet) from the aircraft and roughly 100 meters from the middle of the runway. He called the strike a direct threat to passengers, aircrews and air navigation, and a flagrant violation of international law.

What happened at Aden airport on Oct. 16

Aden police blamed the Iran-backed Houthi movement and reported no casualties, the Associated Press reported. Local sources told Anadolu they heard three explosions. Two missiles reportedly hit the runway of a military airfield inside Badr Camp, a government base next to the civilian airport, and a third struck a Saudi-led coalition camp in the al-Buraiqah district. The extent of the damage was not immediately clear.

The Houthi-run Saba news agency quoted a source as saying the group had targeted a military headquarters and weapons depots inside Badr Camp. Analysts at the Critical Threats Project and the Institute for the Study of War said the strike appeared aimed at government weapons stores, in order to weaken the government’s ability to sustain its offensive against the Houthis.

A second strike on Aden in two days

The airport attack came one day after ballistic missiles hit the Maashiq Palace complex, the seat of Yemen’s internationally recognized government, on Thursday, Oct. 15. Health Minister Qasim Buhaibeh said five people were killed and 16 injured in that strike.

The airport had already been hit earlier in the month. In that attack, Yemen’s Transport Ministry said the Houthis fired at least two ballistic missiles and several drones at the runway and the passenger terminal. One missile landed near the runway minutes before a flight from Cairo was due to land, so officials diverted it to Jeddah, evacuated the terminal and moved two planes off the tarmac, Al Jazeera reported. The Houthis said then that they were targeting “Saudi military supplies” arriving at Badr Camp.

Aden airport is the main international gateway for the parts of Yemen outside Houthi control. The city has served as the government’s seat since the Houthis seized the capital, Sanaa, in 2014.

The ground war behind the missile strikes

The strikes follow the government’s “Dawn of Yemen” counteroffensive, launched in early October to retake Houthi-held territory, including Sanaa. A 2022 truce collapsed and the latest round of fighting began in July, according to Anadolu.

The heaviest ground fighting is in Taiz province. The Critical Threats Project said the Houthis completed an encirclement of Taiz City on Oct. 12 and have since tried to seize high ground west of the city, including Jabal Han, while government-aligned forces have repelled those attacks since Oct. 16. Government forces are also fighting on ridges above the Red Sea coastal plain, where they need to hold ground to protect the recently recaptured Dhubab Airport.

Saudi Arabia, which backs the government, has kept up its own campaign. The Saudi Joint Forces Command said coalition aircraft destroyed two Houthi missile launch sites in Saada province on Oct. 16, and that Saudi air defenses shot down four drones over the Riyadh, Eastern and Southern provinces on Oct. 17. The Boston Report has tracked the Houthi strikes on Saudi airports and a recent report that Iran is giving the Houthis targeting intelligence, which Tehran and the Houthis deny.

Why the Aden airport missile attack matters

Two strikes on the same civilian airport in under two weeks raise the risk for the commercial flights that still connect government-held Yemen with Cairo and other cities. In both cases, officials said missiles landed close to passenger aircraft or the runway while flights were arriving or departing.

The attacks also widen a war that now runs from the front lines in Taiz to Saudi cities and Gulf shipping lanes. The Houthis have also targeted Saudi energy and aviation sites, and the group’s missile and drone arsenal, including the Kheibar Shekan missile, remains central to its strategy of pressuring Riyadh.

Featured photo: Damaged terminal roof at Aden International Airport in July 2017, by IOM – UN Migration, CC BY 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons (cropped). File photo; not from the Oct. 16, 2026 attack.

Sources

• Anadolu Agency: 2 Houthi missiles land near passenger plane at Yemen’s Aden airport
• AP News: 2 missiles strike the airport in Yemen’s port city of Aden, officials say
• Critical Threats Project / ISW: Iran Update, October 17, 2026
• Al Jazeera: Yemen’s Houthis attack Aden airport; Saudi forces down missile near Riyadh