The death toll from a Houthi missile strike on a government military camp in southern Yemen rose to 60 people, primarily new recruits, making it the deadliest strike since fighting in the country began escalating three months ago, Yemeni officials said Tuesday.
At least a dozen people were still missing a day after the Iranian-backed rebels hit the al-Alam training camp in the southern province of Shabwa with ballistic missiles, three officials said.
Monday's strike was part of a recent surge of fighting in Yemen, which started when forces from the internationally-recognized government and Saudi-led coalition launched airstrikes on Houthi-held Sanaa International Airport in July, shattering a 2022 ceasefire deal that largely stopped fighting in the country's civil war.
The Houthis have also fired missiles and drones on Saudi Arabia, which has struggled to counter the Houthi attacks, even with far superior U.S.-supplied arms.
The strike on the al-Alam camp hit while recruits were lining up in formation for a training session. Videos from the area circulated online and analyzed by The Associated Press showed many motionless bodies lying on the sandy ground of the camp.
More than 200 other recruits were also wounded, said the officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to brief the media.
One of the officials, from the local government, said several suffered serious injuries and were transferred to hospitals in other provinces in life-threatening condition. He said at least 15 of the recruits killed were from a single Yemeni tribe.
In televised comments aired by the Saudi-owned Al Arabiya satellite news television, Shabwa governor Awad Ibn al-Wazir said the dead were new recruits from across Shabwa being trained to provide security in the province and not combat operations.
“These recruits have never before participated in any mobilization or on any front,” he said. “They have no connection to the front lines … they were (part of) a non-offensive security force.”
The Shabwa provincial government said in a statement Monday that the Houthis fired three ballistic missiles on the camp. The Houthis claimed the attack, saying they had killed and wounded dozens but did not provide further details.
The camp, which was previously used by a militia backed by the United Arab Emirates, is located in the Jardan district, north of the provincial capital of Ataq. It sits on a crucial supply line connecting to the government-controlled province of Marib.
Shabwa and Marib, along with neighboring Hadramawt province, contain what has been dubbed the Yemeni government’s “triangle of power,” a strategic area in which the country’s oil and gas production is located.
On Tuesday, authorities in Saudi Arabia issued an attack warning for the capital area in the late morning followed by the sound of an explosion in northern Riyadh where the King Khalid International Airport is located. The airport has come under repeated Houthi attacks this month, forcing the facility to suspend its operations.
The all-clear was given a short time later and Saudi Arabia said a ballistic missile fired by the Houthis had been intercepted.
Yemen first plunged into civil war in 2014, when the Houthis seized Sanaa and much of northern Yemen and forced the government into exile.
A Saudi-led coalition intervened the following year in an attempt to restore the government to power. The conflict created one of the world’s worst humanitarian disasters, and killed more than 150,000 people.