Houthi Missile Strike Kills 60 at Yemen Camp

A Houthi missile strike killed 60 people, primarily new recruits, at a government training camp in Yemen’s Shabwa province, Yemeni officials said Tuesday. More than 200 recruits were wounded, and at least a dozen remained missing a day after the attack on al-Alam camp.

The strike on al-Alam

The Shabwa provincial government said the Houthis fired three ballistic missiles at the camp on Monday. The strike came as recruits lined up in formation for training. Videos shared online and analyzed by The Associated Press showed motionless bodies on the camp’s sandy ground.

The dead were primarily new recruits, officials said. Shabwa governor Awad Ibn al-Wazir told Saudi-owned Al Arabiya satellite news television that the recruits came from across Shabwa. They were training to provide security in the province, not to take part in 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.”

Several wounded recruits had serious injuries, a local government official said, and authorities transferred them to hospitals in other provinces in life-threatening condition. At least 15 of those killed came from a single Yemeni tribe, the official said. Separately, another official identified at least 15 recruits among the dead as members of the Awlaki tribe, one of Yemen’s most powerful tribes, centered in Shabwa and Abyan provinces.

The officials spoke anonymously because they weren’t authorized to brief the media. The Houthis claimed responsibility, saying they had killed and wounded dozens, but offered no further details.

A strategic province

Al-Alam camp sits in the Jardan district, north of the provincial capital, Ataq. It stands along a crucial supply line connecting to Marib province, which the government controls. Shabwa, Marib and neighboring Hadramawt province contain an area described as the Yemeni government’s “triangle of power,” where the country’s oil and gas production is located.

A militia backed by the United Arab Emirates had previously used the camp. The attack was described as the deadliest since fighting in Yemen began escalating three months ago.

Fighting after the ceasefire

The strike followed a recent surge in fighting. It began when forces from the internationally-recognized government and the Saudi-led coalition launched airstrikes on Houthi-held Sanaa International Airport in July. Those strikes shattered a 2022 ceasefire deal that had largely stopped fighting in the country’s civil war.

The Houthis have also fired missiles and drones at Saudi Arabia, which has struggled to counter the attacks despite its far superior U.S.-supplied arms. Saudi authorities issued an attack warning for the capital area late Tuesday morning. An explosion followed in northern Riyadh, where King Khalid International Airport is located. Saudi Arabia said it had intercepted a Houthi-fired ballistic missile and later gave the all-clear. That month, the airport had come under repeated Houthi attacks, forcing it to suspend operations.

Yemen’s civil war began 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 to try to restore the government to power. The conflict created one of the world’s worst humanitarian disasters and killed more than 150,000 people.