SHAFAQNA – Unidentified assailants fired missiles at a hotel in Aden used by Yemeni government officials and at a compound housing troops of the government’s Gulf Arab allies on Tuesday, residents said.
The residents said they had unconfirmed reports that about 10 people were killed or wounded. Yemen self-proclaimed Vice President and Prime Minister Khaled Bahah and other officials were unhurt, officials said. Renegade President Abd-Rabbu Mansour Hadi is believed to be in Saudi Arabia.
Initial reports said the missiles were rocket-propelled grenades. Video footage posted on Twitter purporting to show the incident showed a large sheet of flame enveloping the front of the Qasr hotel, followed by an expanding plume of dark smoke.
The missile apparently were fired at the gate of the hotel, residents said. A second missile landed nearby and a third hit a compound in Aden’s Buraiqah district where Gulf Arab troops are housed, residents said.
The United Arab Emirates condemned the attack and suggested it was carried out by the Houthi-led resistance movement.
UAE Minister of State for Foreign Affairs Anwar Gargash said in a Twitter message the attack on the hotel was further proof that the Houthis and Saleh were determined to destroy Yemen.
“The situation on the ground shows that they are waging a losing battle and that their role has been diminished to retreating on the ground and to try to inflict damage with mines, ambushes and rockets,” he said in another message.
A local newspaper, Aden al-Ghad, reported on its website that Bahah said after the attack he was determined to stay in the city.
Sources in Yemen have confirmed that even though the Saudi coalition has been keen to project a sense of control, it lacks any real popular legitimacy to assert its political will.