A Houthi missile strike on a security training camp in Yemen’s Shabwa province killed at least dozens of people on October 19, local officials said, in one of the deadliest attacks of the renewed fighting. The camp was training new security recruits, and the toll rose again a day later as the governor said 73 people had been killed, with 14 still missing.

The attack matters because it hit a government-linked training site at a time when Yemen’s war is intensifying again. It also comes as fighting has spread around strategic territory near the Bab el-Mandeb Strait, the narrow waterway between the Red Sea and the Gulf of Aden.

Conflicting early casualty counts

Shabwa authorities first said the Houthi attack killed more than 53 recruits and wounded more than 200 others. Reuters later reported a separate initial figure of 58 killed and more than 200 injured, while the governor, Awad al-Wazir, said 14 people were missing after the bombardment.

On October 20, the local authorities gave a higher toll, saying the death count had climbed to 73. The reports did not provide a single final figure for the wounded, and they did not identify the missing people.

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Who was targeted

Local authorities said the strike hit the Shahid Ahmed al-Sulaymani training center, where new security recruits from several Yemeni provinces were training. A Yemeni army spokesman, Majed al-Nuzaili, said the Houthis fired three ballistic missiles at a center training security and police personnel in Shabwa.

The Houthis gave a different account. Their military spokesman, Yahya Saree, said the group targeted the Al-Alam camp in Jardan and said it was run by Saudi forces. The sources do not independently confirm whether the two names refer to the same site.

Political response in Yemen

After the attack, Rashad al-Alimi, chairman of Yemen’s Presidential Leadership Council, instructed the relevant authorities to take what was needed for a firm response to the attack’s sources. He also called for medical care for the wounded and support for the families of those killed.

The attack came during a broader escalation that has seen Yemen’s government forces try this month to retake areas held by the Houthis, including ground near the Bab el-Mandeb Strait. Reuters also reported that the Houthis were besieging Taiz, a major city in Yemen’s south-western highlands.

A war that has widened again

Yemen’s war began in 2014, when the Houthis seized the capital, Sanaa. A Saudi-led military intervention followed in 2015, and a truce reached in 2022 held until this year. The fighting has now intensified again, with Reuters describing Yemen as already facing one of the world’s worst humanitarian crises.

That wider conflict has made the Shabwa strike part of a larger military pattern rather than an isolated incident. The latest casualty reports show how quickly the toll can rise in a single attack, while the missing remain unaccounted for.