Houthis strike presidential palace in Aden and kill five

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Bulletin world briefing: Houthi strikes on Yemen presidential palace kill five independent.co.uk

Houthi forces struck the presidential palace complex in Aden, killing five people and wounding 16, according to a briefing from The Independent. The attack on the seat of Yemen's internationally recognized government came the same day Saudi air defenses intercepted missiles and drones aimed at Riyadh. The strike fits an established pattern. The Houthis, a non-state army that now manufactures precision missiles with Chinese components and no longer depends on Iranian logistics, have repeatedly hit the symbols of the government they ousted — while Saudi Arabia, which intervened in 2015 to restore that government, answers with strikes on rebel infrastructure. Earlier this month Saudi jets bombed fuel depots in Sanaa and the port of Ras Isa in Hodeidah, in the largest attack yet on Houthi energy assets. That raid followed a Houthi missile strike on Riyadh's King Khalid airport that killed 13 and wounded 300, closing the Saudi capital's main airport for days. The exchange has settled into a rhythm: infrastructure for headquarters. Riyadh bombs what keeps the Houthi war machine running — fuel, ports, leadership hideouts — and the Houthis hit what makes the Saudi state look sovereign: airports, palaces, energy plants in the southern provinces. Brent crude has already traded above 99 dollars a barrel as markets price the risk rather than the actual outages. Neither side's deterrent is holding. Saudi air defense did down the projectiles aimed at Riyadh, but the airport strike days earlier got through, and Trump, asked about further US military action, called Houthi behavior "very bad" while promising nothing new. Riyadh has blamed Tehran for an escalation it has been unable to stop — even as evidence accumulates that the Houthis can now build their own weapons. Meanwhile a million people in Taiz are cut off from food and fuel as the rebels advance on the city, and the UN warns 800,000 have already lost aid access. For a war that has cycled through Saudi coalitions, UN truces and American bombing campaigns, the latest turn changes little: the recognized government governs from a palace its enemies can hit at will.