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Iran-backed Houthi rebels strike Yemen's government forces with ballistic missiles, killing at least 53

4:26 PM ETConfirmed

World Desk

In Short: Iran-backed Houthi rebels struck a military camp in Yemen's Shabwa province on Monday, killing at least 53 recruits and injuring 200 others, according to Yemeni military officials.

The attack targeted new recruits in the training and preparation phase, according to the provincial government in Shabwa, which described it as a “critical military escalation.”

Yemen's Presidential Leadership Council head, Rashad al-Alimi, condemned the attack as a “criminal act” and vowed a “firm response.”

The Houthis' military spokesman said the group had targeted “Saudi enemy concentrations,” indicating the ongoing conflict between the rebels and Saudi-backed Yemeni government forces.

The attack is one of the deadliest reported since the resurgence in fighting this summer, with the conflict intensifying in recent months.

Yemen has been devastated by a civil war that began in 2014 when the Houthis ousted the government from the capital, Sanaa.

The Saudi-led coalition, with air support, has managed to regain control of territory on the Red Sea coast, but the Houthis have continued to launch attacks on Saudi infrastructure, including airports and oil facilities.

The provincial government in Shabwa called on Yemen’s president, the Saudi-led coalition, and the government to expedite air defense and early warning systems to reinforce Shabwa’s capabilities.

In a separate development, Houthi-run media reported that a Saudi air strike on a home in the Sahar district of the Houthi-controlled northern province of Saada on Sunday killed at least 10 people and injured 23 others, many of them women and children.

The conflict has flared up in recent months, with the Houthis launching a series of missile attacks targeting cities across Saudi Arabia.

The Saudi-led coalition intercepted and destroyed a ballistic missile launched by the Houthi militia toward Riyadh at dawn on Saturday, Sept. 19.

Egypt’s top security body agreed to help Saudi Arabia defend itself against Houthi attacks, marking the latest front in the Iran war that began in February.

The Houthis are attacking Saudi Arabia because it supports government forces in Yemen that the rebels seek to overthrow.

Background

What's confirmed

• The head of Yemen's Presidential Leadership Council, Rashad al-Alimi, condemned what he called the "criminal attack" and promised a "firm response".
• CAIRO (AP) — Iran-backed Houthi rebels struck Yemeni government forces with ballistic missiles on Monday, killing at least 53 soldiers at a military camp in one of the deadliest attacks since a resurgence in fighting this summer, Yemeni military officials said.
• The attack wounded an additional 200 recruits at the military camp in the southern province of Shabwa, the provincial government there said.
• READ MORE: Egypt's top security body agrees to help Saudi Arabia defend itself against Houthi attacks The fighting between the Houthis and Yemen's Saudi-backed government forces is a widening front in the Iran war that began in February.
• In a sign that the Houthi attacks are unsettling Saudi society, the kingdom on Monday canceled a global investment conference scheduled for next week and extended an order for schools in and around Riyadh, the capital, to teach students remotely.
• Iran and its allies in Lebanon and Iraq provide expertise, training and sophisticated weapons to the Houthis, according to U.N. and other experts.
• People ride in a pickup truck during a funeral procession for a Houthi officer in Sanaa, Yemen, Saturday, Oct.
• The Houthi military's spokesman Yahya Saree said in a statement on X that fighters had targeted the sites with ballistic missiles and drones, and that "both operations successfully achieved their objectives".

What's still developing

• Houthi missile attack on Yemeni presidential palace kills five, minister says On Yemen's desert battlefield, a war with global consequences is being waged 'We are terrified but we want to get an education', say Yemeni schoolgirls Monday's attack in Shabwa is one of the deadliest reported since the start of the escalation.
• New Delhi, Oct 14: A missile launched by Yemen’s Houthi movement struck a building belonging to Saudi Arabia’s state oil company Aramco in the eastern city of Dhahran overnight, escalating the confrontation between the Iran-backed group and the Saudi-led coalition, the BBC reported.
• Houthis, Saudi-led forces claim victories as Yemen fighting rages on Forces aligned with Yemen’s internationally recognised government have launched an operation to capture a strategic mountainous district from the Houthis as part of a wider push to retake the Red Sea coast and the Bab al-Mandeb Strait.
• The pro-Iranian fighters targeted “the headquarters of military operations, led by Saudi officers, at the Al-Maashiq Palace in Aden, as well as weapons depots belonging to them,” according to the rebel group’s news agency.

Sources

• BBClink
• Bozeman Daily Chroniclelink
• KTVNlink
• Los Angeles Timeslink
• PBSlink
• RiverBender.comlink
• San Bernardino Sunlink
• The Daily Corinthianlink
• The Daily Reflectorlink
• The Killeen Daily Heraldlink
• The Times of Israellink
• The Tribune-Democratlink
• Ynetnewslink
• Middleeasteyelink
• Fxstreetlink
• The Indian Expresslink
• The Telegraph — video link