Yemen camp strike kills 53, local authorities blame Houthis

Three ballistic missiles struck a security training camp in Yemen’s government-controlled Shabwa province on Monday, 19 October, killing 53 people and injuring more than 200, according to a preliminary assessment by provincial authorities. BBC News reported that Yemeni officials blamed the Iran-backed Houthis, whose military spokesman said the group had attacked a concentration of Saudi forces.

A spokesman for the Saudi-backed Yemeni armed forces identified the site as al-Alam camp near Ataq. Shabwa’s media office said the missiles hit the Martyr Ahmed al-Sulaimani Training Centre, where recruits from several provinces were preparing to join the internal security forces.

Deputy governor Fahad al-Khalifi told AFP that local hospitals could not cope with the number of casualties. The most seriously injured were transferred to Hadramout and Aden, the government’s base, with some remaining in critical condition.

Government and Houthis give competing accounts of target

Rashad al-Alimi, head of Yemen’s Presidential Leadership Council, condemned the strike as a “criminal attack” and pledged a “firm response”.

Information Minister Moammar al-Eryani argued that the training centre was not a military target and described the strike as a war crime. That is the government’s allegation, not an established legal finding. He also accused the Houthis of using the attack to claim success and distract from battlefield losses.

Houthi military spokesman Yahya Sarea said the missiles struck “Saudi enemy” forces at al-Alam camp and claimed Saudi officers ran the facility. The competing descriptions of the target have not been independently established here.

Strike comes amid renewed fighting

The Shabwa attack is among the deadliest reported incidents in the latest escalation of Yemen’s civil war. Pro-government forces began a major offensive in early October to recover Houthi-held territory in western Yemen.

Backed by Saudi-led coalition air power, those forces regained territory on the Red Sea coast overlooking the Bab al-Mandab Strait that the Houthis had seized in September. Fighting has continued along that front, around the besieged government-held city of Taiz, and in Marib and al-Jawf provinces.

The Houthis have also launched missiles and drones towards Saudi airports, energy infrastructure and military bases in response to Saudi air strikes. At least 19 people were reported killed in attacks on the kingdom’s airports since the beginning of October.

Separate air-strike deaths reported in northern Yemen

Houthi-run media said a Saudi air strike hit a home in Sahar district, in the northern province of Saada, on Sunday, killing at least 10 people and injuring 23. It reported that many of the casualties were women and children. These figures and the attribution of the strike remain claims from Houthi-run outlets.

The Houthi-run health ministry in north-western Yemen put deaths from Saudi strikes over the preceding seven weeks at 141. Separately, the government’s health ministry said last week that at least 1,282 people had died in the conflict nationwide since 6 August. The figures cover different periods and scopes and should not be added together.

Yemen’s war began in 2014 when the Houthis displaced the government from Sanaa, and intensified after the Saudi-led coalition intervened in 2015. A four-year informal ceasefire began breaking down in July, when the Houthis announced a maritime embargo against Saudi Arabia and launched attacks on airports, oil facilities and Red Sea tankers.

The Houthis described those actions as retaliation for what they called a Saudi blockade and an attack on Sanaa airport that they blamed on the kingdom.