Yemeni officials on Tuesday said that unidentified assailants fired missiles at an Aden hotel housing government officials and at a Gulf military base.

A government spokesman described the attack as the biggest since government retook the city from Houthi foes in July.

An unknown number of people were killed or injured in the attack, which the government said it was investigating.

According to media reports, the missiles were rocket-propelled grenades, however, Nayef al-Bakri , Minister of Youth and Sports, said that the attacks were by suicide bombers.

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.

“There was a fire for two hours,” Mohammed al-Saadi, a southern politician who arrived at the hotel about two hours after it was attacked, told newsmen.

“The soldiers at the door died in the attack, but I don’t know how many there were.

‘’Yemeni Vice President and Prime Minister Khaled Bahah and “many ministers were sleeping in the hotel.

“They and all the government workers have now been moved to a secret place,” Al Saddi said.

Government spokesman, Rajeh Badi told newsmen that the cause of the explosions at the hotel was “rockets”.

“No one from among the government was wounded, but we don’t have any information on other casualties.

‘’ The government is not holding anyone responsible yet and an investigation is being launched,” Badi said.

Air strikes and ground fighting have killed over 4,500 people in Yemen since Gulf Arab nations launched a military campaign in support of the internationally recognised government