Shabwa Authorities Raise Houthi Camp Strike Toll to 53 Dead, 200 Wounded

Since three Houthi ballistic missiles hit the al-Alam camp in Shabwa on Monday, Oct. 19, the casualty figures have more than doubled. The Shabwa provincial government said in a statement that 53 people were killed and 200 wounded. It described the toll as preliminary, which means it may rise.

That is a long way from the early counts. Government and medical sources first said at least 18 were dead and more than 30 wounded. The latest figure makes this one of the deadliest single attacks in the recent surge in fighting.

The new numbers come from the local authority alone. Reuters verified video from Shabwa showing injured people and bloodied bodies scattered across the ground. No independent body has confirmed the toll.

Who was hit

The camp sits in Jardan district, north of the provincial capital Ataq. It was previously used by a militia backed by the United Arab Emirates. It lies on a route to government-held Marib and on supply lines government forces depend on.

The Shabwa government said the dead and wounded were new recruits training for internal security forces. A military official said they belonged to a newly formed unit called Rapid Intervention, tasked with defending the area. According to that official, the missiles landed as recruits lined up in formation for a training session.

The Shabwa government called the strike "an extremely critical military escalation." It directed two public hospitals and private clinics to treat the wounded and move the worst cases to specialized units.

Houthi position and the government response

The Houthis have acknowledged targeting the camp. Their SABA news agency claimed the attack killed and wounded dozens but gave no further detail. The group has not publicly addressed the Shabwa government's figure of 53 dead.

Rashad al-Alimi, head of the Presidential Leadership Council, promised a "firm response." He said the strike reflects the Houthis' "approach of resorting to cowardly terrorist attacks whenever they face pressures or their Iranian-backed sabotage plots falter."

The Shabwa authority also made a direct request. It called on Yemen's president, the Saudi-led coalition and the government to expedite air defense and early warning systems for the province. The statement did not say whether any are on the way.

Shabwa is energy-rich and overlooks the Gulf of Aden. It is home to the Balhaf liquefied natural gas facility, Yemen's largest industrial investment.

The wider fighting

The strike lands in the middle of a rapid escalation. The Houthis seized strategic territory along the Red Sea coast in September. Government forces, backed by Saudi Arabia, responded with a counteroffensive and the "Dawn of Yemen" operation, which aims to retake Houthi-held ground, including Sanaa. The Houthis have also stepped up attacks on Saudi Arabia, including Riyadh's international airport and Aramco facilities. Saudi authorities sent alerts to Riyadh residents on Monday warning of "a hostile aerial threat."

The Houthis are also pressing Taiz, which CBC describes as the last major urban stronghold of anti-Houthi forces in the southern highlands.

Casualties are mounting on the Houthi side too, according to the Houthi-run Health Ministry. It said an airstrike on Sunday blamed on Saudi-led forces killed at least nine people in the northern province of Saada, including five children and two women. The Houthis said that strike was one of several over the weekend that killed or wounded more than 30 people. Those figures come from the Houthis and have not been independently confirmed. There was no immediate comment from Saudi Arabia.

The fighting has shattered the 2022 ceasefire that had largely stopped Yemen's civil war. Al Jazeera ties the return to conflict to the U.S. and Israeli war on Iran.

Two questions are open. The first is whether the Shabwa toll climbs again as the wounded are treated, since the provincial government has said its count is not final. The second is what al-Alimi's promised "firm response" turns out to be, and whether the air defenses Shabwa has requested are delivered before the next missile salvo.