Death toll from Houthi attack on Yemen training camp rises to 73
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The Iran-aligned Houthis and Yemen’s internationally recognised government, backed by a Saudi-led coalition, have traded attacks since September.
PHOTO: EPA
- Houthi missiles hit a government training camp in Shabwa, Yemen, killing 73 people. Fourteen are still missing, and more than 200 were injured, said provincial officials.
- The attack comes as fighting intensifies between the Houthis and Yemen’s recognised government, backed by a Saudi-led coalition, near the Bab el-Mandeb Strait.
- The war has worsened Yemen’s humanitarian crisis, with aid agencies warning of rapidly deteriorating conditions in one of the world’s worst emergencies.
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SANAA - An attack by Yemen’s Houthi movement on a government security forces training camp in Shabwa province killed 73 people, the provincial media office said, raising the toll from the Oct 19 strike as fighting intensifies.
Fourteen people remained missing, it added.
The Iran-aligned Houthis and Yemen’s internationally recognised government, backed by a Saudi-led coalition, have traded attacks since September when the group advanced towards territory near the Bab el-Mandeb Strait, a shipping chokepoint at the Red Sea’s mouth.
The local authorities said three ballistic missiles hit security forces on Oct 19 during training. Reuters-verified video showed injured people and bloodied bodies scattered on the ground.
More than 200 people were injured, according to provincial governor Awad al-Wazir.
Houthi military spokesperson Yahya Saree said the camp was run by Saudi forces. The Saudi authorities did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Yemeni government forces began a campaign in October to retake Houthi-held areas, recovering ground near the strait. The Houthis are besieging Taiz, the last major urban stronghold of anti-Houthi forces in Yemen’s southern highlands.
The conflict has become another front in the wider US-Israeli war on Iran, with Houthi attacks targeting Riyadh’s international airport and Saudi Aramco in Saudi Arabia, the world’s largest crude exporter.
Shabwa, an energy-rich coastal province overlooking the Gulf of Aden, hosts the Balhaf liquefied natural gas facility, Yemen’s largest industrial investment.
Yemen’s war began with the Houthi seizure of Sanaa in 2014, which drove the government south. A Saudi-led intervention in 2015 produced a bloody stalemate before a 2022 truce that held until 2026.
Aid agencies warn of rapidly deteriorating conditions in what is already one of the world’s worst humanitarian crises. REUTERS