The Ansar Allah-led Yemeni Armed Forces announced on Monday that its forces attacked the al-Alam camp in Yemen’s south-central Shabwa province, which it described as being run by “Saudi officers.”
The local authority told Reuters that there were significant casualties, reporting that 53 people were killed and more than 200 were wounded. The report described al-Alam as a military training camp for the security forces of the Saudi-backed Yemeni government.
Local media reported that among the wounded were members of the Security Belt Forces, a militia affiliated with the Southern Transitional Council, which has historically been backed by the UAE, though Saudi Arabia ousted the UAE from Yemen late last year and injected cash into the country to pay the salaries of the fighters that Abu Dhabi had supported.
Ansar Allah, also known as the Houthis, claimed that the attack caused Saudi casualties, which so far haven’t been confirmed, and it warned Yemenis against joining the Saudi-backed forces. “We warn those who have been deceived against responding to the Saudi enemy’s calls to send them to their deaths with tainted money, sacrificing them instead of their own soldiers and showing no regard for their lives,” Ansar Allah military spokesman Yahya Saree wrote on Telegram.
Saree also announced a ballistic missile attack on Saudi-backed forces in the al-Saqiya and Ras al-Ara areas in the southwestern Lahj province, which has a coast on the Gulf of Aden, and claimed it resulted in “dozens of dead and wounded and the destruction of several vehicles.” Later, he issued another statement announcing a series of six attacks on Saudi Arabia, including strikes on airports and oil infrastructure.
He said the attacks on Saudi Arabia came “in retaliation for the brutal Saudi aggression targeting our country and people, which has launched more than two hundred airstrikes and missile attacks during the past 48 hours, targeting civilian infrastructure in the capital, Sana’a, and the liberal provinces, leaving dozens of martyrs and wounded, most of whom are women and children.”
A Saudi airstrike hit a civilian home in Yemen’s Saada province on Sunday, killing at least 10 people, including seven children. The US is strongly supporting the Saudi air campaign despite the large number of civilian casualties and is providing intelligence and refueling Saudi warplanes.
