SANA’A -- Ansarullah-led Yemeni armed forces carried out ballistic missile strikes on a Saudi military command center and weapons depots in Aden, while pressing a tightening encirclement of Ta’izz and responding to a wave of Saudi airstrikes that killed at least nine civilians, including women and children, in the province on Saturday.

The missile salvo targeted the Saudi forces’ headquarters at Badr Camp adjacent to Aden International Airport and weapons storage facilities inside the base, a military source told the Sana’a-run Saba news agency.

Local residents reported multiple explosions across the Khormaksar district around the airport. The Saudi-backed former fugitive regime’s information minister claimed two missiles landed roughly 500 meters from a Yemenia Airways passenger jet preparing to depart for Cairo, a claim that could not be independently verified.

The strike followed an earlier Ansarullah operation against a military operations room run by Saudi officers at the Ma’ashiq Palace in Aden, which the Yemeni armed forces said was being used to direct attacks on Yemeni territory.

On the Ta’izz front, Ansarullah-led forces escalated their offensive on Saturday, with fierce clashes shifting to the western entrance of the city along the Ta’izz-Hudaydah road, extending from the Sharab junction to the vicinity of the 35th Armored Brigade camp near the old airport district.

Saudi warplanes launched raids on Jabal Han, overlooking a position captured by Sana’a forces three days earlier, as the Saudi-backed former fugitive regime’s forces attempted to stall the advance.

The Yemeni armed forces have encircled Ta’izz, a strategic highland city that commands the approaches to Aden and the Bab al-Mandab coastline, and have called on Saudi mercenaries to withdraw to spare civilians.

Mediation efforts to hand over the city without fighting have been underway, with assurances that Taizz’s residents would administer their own affairs, according to a Yemeni official.

The humanitarian toll mounted sharply on Saturday. Saudi airstrikes targeted homes in the Maqbanah district of Ta’izz, killing nine civilians, including women and children, and wounding 16, according to Al-Masirah television.

Rescue workers were still attempting to recover bodies from under the rubble, the report said. The Sana’a health ministry has recorded 419 killed and wounded since the latest Saudi escalation began on September 3, with women and children constituting the largest share of casualties.

Saudi artillery also shelled populated areas in the border districts of Razih and Munabbih, while Saudi warplanes conducted strikes across Sana’a, Sa’ada, Hudaydah, Dhamar, Ma’rib, Al-Jawf, Amran, and Lahij.

Saudi-backed mercenary formations have suffered significant losses in Ta’izz and along the western coast. The commander of the 35th Armored Brigade, Abdulrahman Shamsani, was killed in clashes in the Jabal Motran area earlier this month as Ansarullah-led forces advanced through the al-Mawaset district.

Along the Bab al-Mandab front, Saudi-backed brigades known as “al-Amaliqa” and “Dir’ al-Watan” retreated from positions south of the strait toward Khor Omaira and Aden after sustaining heavy losses in attacks at Ras al-Aara, according to field sources cited by Sana’a media.

The Saudi-led occupation’s stated objective of wresting the Bab al-Mandab strait from Sana’a’s control has failed, with Saudi warplanes bombing Mayun Island—where Yemeni forces monitor maritime traffic—in what a Sana’a military source described as an attack on maritime security.

The Ansarullah-led armed forces have vowed to sustain operations deep inside Saudi territory, targeting airports and oil facilities, until the aggression stops and the blockade is lifted.

Brigadier General Yahya Saree, the armed forces spokesman, has said the total number of Saudi airstrikes and missile attacks since the escalation began has reached 2,489.