Houthi missiles kill 53 at Yemen army training camp, deadliest single attack since civil war reignited in September

Three ballistic missiles struck a Yemeni government training camp while recruits stood lined up in formation, killing at least 53 people in the deadliest single attack since the country's civil war reignited in September. More than 200 were reported injured, most of them young recruits, and the wounded were taken to Ataq, the provincial capital of Shabwa, where the hospital issued appeals for blood donations.

The Houthis claimed the strike on the al-Alam camp in the Jardan district, describing it as a base "run by Saudi officers" and warning "the deceived ones" against answering Saudi calls "with his defiled money to the pyres of death". Rashad al-Alimi, president of the UN-recognised government, said the dead were new recruits and vowed an immediate hard response, accusing the Houthis of "cowardly terrorist attacks whenever they face pressures". He phoned UN secretary general António Guterres to ask that the movement be classified as a foreign terrorist organisation.

The attack fits a war that has widened on several fronts since the Houthis began pushing south along the Red Sea coast in mid-September, aiming to control the Bab al-Mandab waterway. Reliable casualty figures are hard to gather, but deaths over the past month are believed to run into the many thousands. The Houthis are trying to mount a siege of Taiz, where residents have called for greater air protection, while southern forces say they are edging the movement back from the approaches to the waterway. Houthi units have cut the road between government-held Shabwa and the Houthi-run Bayda governorate.

The fighting has also reached Saudi territory. A Saudi airstrike on Sunday killed nine people, including five children and two women, and the Saudi Aramco headquarters was struck last weekend. Several airlines say they will not resume using Riyadh airport, and it is unclear whether the Houthis are easing their attacks on Saudi airports and energy installations or running low on munitions.

The government has announced an inquiry into how so many troops came to be standing in formation, within range of Houthi ballistic missiles, at a camp in a province whose road to neighbouring Houthi-run territory has already been cut.