Yemen: 25 killed, 30 injured in missile attack on military camp

Aden (Yemen), October 19 (IANS): At least 25 soldiers were killed and more than 30 others injured on Monday after three missiles struck a government military training base in Yemen's southeastern province of Shabwa, a government military official and a local medical source told Xinhua.The local military official, who requested anonymity, said the three missiles targeted Al-Alam military base, particularly a training camp within the facility in Jardan district, near Ataq, the provincial capital, blaming the attack on the Houthi group.Footage circulating on social media showed numerous casualties at the scene. The local medical source said that the casualty figures remained preliminary and could rise, Xinhua News Agency reported.Emergency and medical teams continued evacuating the wounded to hospitals in Shabwa, while some of the bodies recovered from the camp were badly burned, complicating efforts to establish a final toll, the medical source said.Al-Alam is a large military facility in Jardan district used by forces aligned with Yemen's internationally recognised government and supported by the Saudi Arabia-led coalition.The Houthis had not claimed responsibility for the attack. The incident came amid intensified fighting and exchanges of attacks between the Houthis and government forces supported by the Saudi Arabia-led coalition across several fronts in Yemen.On Sunday, fierce fighting erupted near Yemen's strategic Bab al-Mandeb Strait as government forces launched a fresh offensive against Houthi positions in the area, a government military official told Xinhua.The official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said units from the Giants Brigades and Nation Shield Forces advanced from several directions to seize key Houthi-held positions overlooking approaches to the strait.Heavy clashes were raging as Houthi fighters resisted the advance from fortified positions and trenches, the official said, adding that extensive minefields had complicated the government forces' push, Xinhua News Agency reported."The fighting is among the fiercest we have seen in the area," the official said. "The Houthis are heavily entrenched, and our forces are trying to break through their defensive lines."The official said the Houthis also deployed fibre-optic-guided first-person-view kamikaze drones known as "Shawaz" against the advancing government troops.