Death toll from Houthi attack on Yemen training camp rises to 73

Oct 20 (Reuters) – 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 Monday’s 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.

Local authorities said three ballistic missiles hit security forces on Monday 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. Saudi authorities did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Yemeni government forces began a campaign this month 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 this year. 

Aid agencies warn of rapidly deteriorating conditions in what is already one of the world’s worst humanitarian crises.

(Reporting by Mohammed Ghobari; Writing by Tala Ramadan; Editing by Andrew Cawthorne)