Houthi attack on Yemen government camp kills over 50, officials say

Dubai – More than 50 people were killed and over 200 wounded when Yemen’s Houthis hit a military camp in energy-rich Shabwa province with ballistic missiles, officials and military sources said on Monday.

It marked the deadliest attack in weeks as fighting between the Iran-backed Houthis and Yemen’s internationally recognized, Saudi-supported government escalates after the collapse of a yearslong truce.

“More than 53 recruits” were killed and over 200 injured, all new members of the internal security forces who were undergoing training, Shabwa authorities said in a statement.

Three ballistic missiles struck al-Alam camp in Shabwa, two military sources said. Majed al-Nuzaili, spokesperson for the Yemeni armed forces, described it as a training centre for security and police recruits.

Fahad al-Khalifi, deputy governor of Shabwa, said hospitals in the province were overwhelmed and had been forced to transfer the most seriously wounded to neighboring Hadramout and Aden.

“Some of them (are) in critical condition,” he said.

Shabwa contains major oil and gas fields and is home to the Balhaf liquefied natural gas terminal, the country’s largest energy facility and a key economic asset.

A government military source in the province said the army feared the strikes could pave the way for a ground offensive “similar to what happened in Mokha,“ the strategic Red Sea port city seized by the Houthis last month.

The source, who requested anonymity, said the Houthis had cut a road linking Shabwa with Houthi-controlled Al-Bayda province on Sunday.

The Houthis’ Saba news agency quoted a military source as saying the group targeted “Saudi enemy gatherings” at al-Alam camp, causing dozens of deaths and injuries.

Earlier this month, Yemen’s government launched a counter-offensive to retake territory on the Red Sea coast seized by the Houthis in September.

Houthi attacks on Saudi Arabia have also reached an unprecedented scale.

The group has carried out multiple strikes on Riyadh airport, including an attack this month that killed 13 people and wounded more than 300, the deadliest in the kingdom in more than a decade.

In July, a fragile 2022 truce between the Houthis and Yemen’s government fell apart after the group allowed an Iranian plane to land in Sanaa in defiance of Riyadh’s control over Yemeni airspace, setting off a spate of attacks.

Later, they declared a maritime blockade of Saudi Arabia and began hitting its ships, territory and oil facilities, before routing Yemeni government forces from positions along the Red Sea coastline in a lightning campaign last month.