At least 58 people were killed and more than 200 injured when Iran-aligned Houthi forces struck a government security forces training camp in Yemen’s Shabwa province on Monday, a local governor said.
Governor Awad al-Wazir said a further 14 people were missing after the bombardment of the Al-Alam camp, according to Reuters.
Video from Shabwa verified by Reuters showed wounded people and bodies strewn across the ground.
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Local authority sources, speaking on condition of anonymity, told the news agency the Houthis fired three ballistic missiles at security personnel who were taking part in a training exercise.
Fighting across Yemen has sharply intensified in recent weeks. The Houthis and the internationally recognised government, which is backed by a Saudi-led coalition, have been trading attacks since the Houthis pushed towards territory near the Bab el-Mandeb Strait in September.
The strait is a key shipping chokepoint at the mouth of the Red Sea.
Government forces launched a campaign this month to retake Houthi-held areas and have regained some ground near the strait.
The Houthis, meanwhile, are besieging Taiz, the last major urban stronghold of anti-Houthi forces in Yemen’s southern highlands.
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Shabwa is an energy-rich province in south-central Yemen, on the coast of the Gulf of Aden. It is home to the Balhaf liquefied natural gas facility, the country’s largest industrial investment.
The Yemen conflict has become another front in the wider US-Israeli war on Iran.
The Houthis have stepped up attacks on Saudi Arabia, the world’s largest crude exporter, targeting Riyadh’s international airport and state oil company Saudi Aramco.
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The war began in 2014, when the Houthis seized the capital Sanaa and forced the government to move south.
A Saudi-led military intervention the following year led to a bloody stalemate, which continued until the warring sides agreed a truce in 2022. That truce held until this year.
Yemen remains one of the world’s worst humanitarian crises, and aid agencies have warned that conditions are deteriorating rapidly.
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