Yemen president flees palace after jet attack

Yemen’s president has been forced to flee his presidential palace after two fighter planes targeted his residence in Aden, a government official has said. 

President Abd-Rabbu Mansour Hadi was evacuated on Thursday after the planes opened fire, hitting his residence in the southern city.

“President Hadi has been evacuated to a safe place but he has not left the country,” Hadi’s aide told the AFP news agency as a plane made a second pass over the palace.

The aircraft dropped a bomb or fired a missile at the compound in al-Maasheeq district of the southern port city, where Hadi is based, the official said, in a sharp escalation of Yemen’s months-long armed turmoil.

Residents said anti-aircraft guns opened fire at the planes, and smoke was seen rising from the area, but it was not immediately clear if Hadi was in the compound.

A Yemeni security source said the situation at the presidential palace “was under control and there was nothing to be worried about.”