More than 200 mostly young people said to be injured after ballistic missile attack on training camp for government forces
At least 53 people have been killed in a Houthi ballistic missile attack on a training camp for Yemeni government security forces, making it the largest single loss of life since the country’s civil war reignited in September.
The attack on al-Alam camp in the southern Shabwa province was said to have injured more than 200 others, mostly young recruits, and was described as a disaster by the country’s UN-recognised government. The injured were taken from the police and army training camp in the Jardan district to a hospital in the local capital, Ataq, where pleas for blood donations were made.
There will be an inquiry into how so many troops were left so exposed to a Houthi attack. In mid-September, the group began a fresh push on forces backing the UN-recognised government by pushing south along the Red Sea coast to try to take control of the Bab al-Mandab waterway.
Reliable assessments of the death toll in the fighting over the last month are hard to gather, but it is running into the many thousands. A Saudi airstrike on Sunday killed nine, including five children and two women.
Rashad al-Alimi, the president of the UN-recognised government, said those killed on Monday were new recruits, and he vowed an immediate hard response. He said the incident “affirmed that targeting the recruits reflects the Houthi militias’ approach of resorting to cowardly terrorist attacks whenever they face pressures or their Iranian-backed sabotage plots falter”.
On Monday he phoned the UN secretary general, António Guterres, to ask for the UN to classify the Houthis as a foreign terrorist organisation.
The Shabwa provincial authority said: “Targeting recruits constitutes a military escalation and a blatant assault on the province’s security.” Its governor, Awad bin al-Wazir, visited the wounded in hospitals, and called for extra air defences, saying troops were fighting across six fronts.
The killings underline the dangers of large numbers of troops gathering in one place within reach of the Houthi ballistic missile arsenal. The training camp was struck by three ballistic missiles while the recruits lined up in formation.
Houthi forces have also cut the road between government-run Shabwa and the Houthi-run Bayda governorate.
The Houthi military spokesperson said: “Our armed forces targeted the Saudi enemy’s mobilisations in al-Alam camp, which is run by Saudi officers in the eastern regions. The targeting resulted in the fall of dozens of dead and wounded from the Saudi enemy’s mobilisations, including Saudi officers.
“We warn the deceived ones against responding to the Saudi enemy’s calls to lure them with his defiled money to the pyres of death, and to exploit them instead of his soldiers who are indifferent to their lives.”
A Yemen government spokesperson said the site struck was not a military target linked to the current fighting but “a training centre where new recruits in the internal security forces of Shabwa governorate receive training and qualification programmes.”
They added: “This reveals the criminal nature of this assault, which targeted young people in the preparation and qualification phase to carry out their security duties, far from the frontlines.”
Separately the Houthis claim to have hit the anti-Houthi Giant Brigades of southern Yemen in six strikes in the areas of al-Suqya and Ras al-Ara. Southern forces are said to have been making progress in edging Houthi forces out of control of the area around the Bab al-Mandab strait, the narrowest waterway taking ships from the Red Sea to the Indian Ocean.
Fighting is also under way as Houthis try to mount a siege of Taiz, where citizens have been calling for greater air protection. In the city there seems to be a determination not to capitulate, but conditions are deteriorating as Houthis close access points.
It is not clear whether the Houthis have decided to slow the pace of attacks on Saudi airports and energy installations, or they are running low on munitions.
The Saudi Aramco headquarters was struck last weekend and some airlines have said they will not yet resume using Riyadh airport. The airport reopened at the weekend after being attacked this month.
Egypt’s parliament has postponed a vote on whether to send troops to Saudi Arabia despite extending the debate to a second day as MPs demanded more than two minutes each to speak. The vote is now likely to be held next week.
A two-thirds majority is required, and some opposition parties have signalled their intention to vote against or abstain. Disputes centre on the extent of the mission and whether it will involve sending troops into Yemen to help Saudi Arabia, and whether Egyptian troops inside Saudi Arabia would become targets for Houthi attacks.
The delay also gives the Egyptians time to see if Iran can persuade the Houthis to hold back, and for Saudi Arabia to confirm the renewal of badly needed loans to Egypt.
Egypt has resisted any ground intervention in Yemen, dating back to the 1962-67 war, when Gamal Abdel Nasser sent troops to back the republicans in North Yemen against the Saudi- and British-backed royalists. The incursion was intended to be minimal, but escalated to as many as 70,000 soldiers. Estimates of Egyptians killed range from 10,000-26,000.
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Source: www.theguardian.com
