At least 73 security personnel were killed on Monday when Houthi ballistic missiles struck a training camp in Yemen’s central province of Shabwa, in the deadliest single attack since the country’s civil war escalated in recent months.
According to Yemen’s Saudi-backed armed forces, the Iran-aligned Houthis fired three ballistic missiles at al-Alam camp near the city of Ataq. The facility, known as the Martyr Ahmed al-Sulaimani Training Centre, was being used to train recruits from several provinces for the police and internal security forces.
Shabwa’s media office first reported 53 dead and 200 wounded. On Tuesday, it raised the toll to 73, citing findings of an investigative committee, while 14 people remain missing. Deputy Governor Fahad al-Khalifi told AFP that local hospitals were overwhelmed, forcing the transfer of critically injured victims to Hadramout and Aden, the seat of the government. Video circulating on social media appeared to show bodies strewn across the camp grounds.
Rashad al-Alimi, head of Yemen’s Presidential Leadership Council, condemned the strike as a criminal attack and vowed a firm response. Information Minister Moammar al-Eryani called it a war crime, arguing that the centre was not a military target, and accused the Houthis of seeking a fabricated propaganda victory to mask battlefield losses.
Houthi military spokesman Yahya Sarea claimed the missiles hit a concentration of Saudi forces at a camp he said was run by Saudi officers. Riyadh has not commented.
The attack comes amid a sharp escalation. In early October, pro-government forces, backed by Saudi-led coalition air power, launched a major offensive to retake Houthi-held territory in western Yemen, recapturing parts of the Red Sea coast overlooking the strategic Bab al-Mandab Strait. Heavy fighting continues there, around the besieged city of Taiz, and in Marib and al-Jawf.
Casualties are mounting on all sides. Houthi-run media said a Saudi air strike on a home in Saada’s Sahar district on Sunday killed at least 10 people, many of them women and children. The Houthi health ministry puts deaths from Saudi strikes over seven weeks at 141, while the government says at least 1,282 people have been killed across Yemen since August 6. In Saudi Arabia, Houthi attacks on airports have killed at least 19 people since October began.
Yemen’s war began in 2014 when the Houthis seized Sanaa, and widened in 2015 with Saudi-led intervention. A four-year informal truce began collapsing in July, when the Houthis declared a maritime embargo on Saudi Arabia and resumed missile and drone attacks, citing what they describe as a Saudi blockade and a strike on Sanaa airport.
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