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. The rebels acknowledged targeting the camp.
The fighting between the Houthis and Yemen’s Saudi-backed government forces is a widening front in the Iran war that began in February. The escalation shattered a 2022 ceasefire deal that largely stopped fighting in Yemen’s civil war.
The Houthis have put their growing military capabilities on display on multiple fronts in recent weeks, repeatedly striking Saudi Arabia’s main international airport hundreds of miles (kilometers) away and seizing territory inside Yemen near a key shipping chokepoint.
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. Iran denies arming the Houthis, which would violate a U.N. embargo.
The provincial government in Yemen says death toll may rise
The provincial government in Shabwa said the death toll could rise from Monday's attack, which it said “targeted new recruits in the training and preparation phase and is considered an extremely critical military escalation.”
It 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.
The head of Yemen's ruling Presidential Leadership Council, Rashad al-Alimi, promised a “firm response.”
A Houthi military spokesman claimed the camp was targeted because it is operated by Saudi officers, and that some of them were killed in the attack — though he provided no evidence. The Saudi government did not immediately comment.
A group of fighters aligned with the government said Monday its fighters repelled a Houthi offensive after hours of fighting in southwestern Yemen. Separately, the local authorities in Yemen’s Marib province said the Houthis fired ballistic missiles at the densely populated city of Marib, which hosts large numbers of people displaced by the conflict.
Saudi Arabia cancels investment conference
On Sunday, the Houthi-run Health Ministry blamed Saudi-led forces for an airstrike that killed at least nine people in Yemen’s rebel-held northern province of Saada. Five children and two women were killed in the attack, one of several that killed or wounded more than 30 people over the weekend, according to the rebels.
There was no immediate comment from Saudi Arabia.
The Houthis, a Shiite religious and political movement rooted in northern Yemen, are increasingly attacking Saudi Arabia because it supports Yemen’s internationally recognized government in the civil war.
The Sunni kingdom, which has long feared the emergence of a well-armed ally of Shiite Iran on its border, joined the war in 2015 after the rebels seized much of northern Yemen, including the capital, Sana’a.
In recent weeks, the Houthis have targeted Saudi airports, oil and military facilities, and the headquarters of Saudi oil giant Aramco.
On Monday, Houthi rebels claimed to have carried out six attacks targeting oil infrastructure, airports and military sites across Saudi Arabia, but the group did not specify when the attacks took place.
The Saudi Civil Defense issued danger alerts but no immediate reports of casualties or damage.
In Yemen, the Houthis recently seized more territory along the Red Sea coast and near the Bab el-Mandeb Strait, a crucial shipping alternative to the Strait of Hormuz. The Saudi-led coalition launched a major military offensive earlier this month to dislodge the rebels from that strategic perch and retake the territory.
Monday marked five years since Houthis detained more than 20 Yemeni staff of the U.S. embassy in Sana’a. The embassy had suspended operations in 2015 but local staff still provided security and basic maintenance of the facility. The State Department on Monday called for their “immediate and unconditional release.”
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Associated Press writers Ahmed al-Haj in Aden, Yemen, and Baraa Anwer in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, contributed to this report.
