Iran-Backed Houthis Kill 60 Recruits in Yemen Missile Strike

Three ballistic missiles slammed into the al-Alam training camp in Yemen’s Shabwa province as new recruits stood in formation, killing 60 people and wounding more than 200 others, Yemeni officials said Tuesday. At least a dozen remain missing. It’s the deadliest single strike since fighting in the country began escalating three months ago.

The dead weren’t frontline fighters. Shabwa governor Awad Ibn al-Wazir said the recruits came from across the province and were training to provide security, not to fight. “These recruits have never before participated in any mobilization or on any front,” he said in televised comments aired by the Saudi-owned Al Arabiya. “They have no connection to the front lines ... they were (part of) a non-offensive security force.” Videos circulated online and analyzed by The Associated Press showed motionless bodies on the camp’s sandy ground.

The Strike and Its Victims

The Houthis, whom the base reporting identifies as Iranian-backed rebels, claimed the attack. They said they had killed and wounded dozens but offered no further details. Yemeni officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they weren’t authorized to brief the media. They said several wounded people had been transferred to hospitals in other provinces in life-threatening condition.

The toll also carries a tribal dimension. A local government official said at least 15 of the dead came from a single Yemeni tribe. Another official said at least 15 victims belonged to the Awlaki tribe, one of Yemen’s most powerful, centered in Shabwa and Abyan provinces. Such losses within one community can reverberate for years.

The camp sits in Jardan district, north of the provincial capital, Ataq, on a crucial supply line connecting to the government-controlled province of Marib. A militia backed by the United Arab Emirates previously used it. Shabwa, Marib and neighboring Hadramawt province form what’s described as the Yemeni government’s “triangle of power,” where the country’s oil and gas production is located. The strike reached beyond one camp.

A Shattered Ceasefire

The violence followed the collapse of a truce. In July, forces from the internationally recognized government and the Saudi-led coalition launched airstrikes on Houthi-held Sanaa International Airport, shattering a 2022 ceasefire deal that had largely stopped fighting in the civil war. Four years of relative calm ended. Combat has steadily surged over the past three months.

The Houthis haven’t confined their attacks to Yemen. They’ve launched missiles and drones at Saudi Arabia, which has struggled to stop them despite far superior U.S.-supplied arms. Late Tuesday morning, Saudi authorities issued an attack warning for the capital area. 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 authorities gave the all-clear a short time later. Repeated Houthi attacks this month had forced the airport to suspend operations.

A War Now in Its Twelfth Year

Yemen plunged into civil war in 2014, when the Houthis seized Sanaa and much of northern Yemen and forced the government into exile. The following year, a Saudi-led coalition intervened 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.

Why This Matters: The Houthis answer to Tehran, and their missiles are reaching a government oil-and-gas heartland and the airport serving a Gulf capital. The strike hit recruits assigned to security duty, not offensive operations, showing how little the group distinguishes between military and non-military targets. Saudi Arabia is struggling to blunt a proxy force’s campaign despite sophisticated U.S.-supplied weaponry, raising hard questions about how any state deters an armed movement backed from abroad. For governments weighing ceasefires with such groups, the collapse of the 2022 truce and the toll at al-Alam offer a sobering measure of what paper agreements can and can’t hold.