More than 30 soldiers for the internationally recognised Yemeni government were reportedly killed and dozens wounded on Monday after Houthi forces launched a ballistic missile attack on a military camp in Yemen's southern Shabwa province, according to military and medical sources.
The attack targeted Al-Alam military camp near the city of Ataq while soldiers were taking part in a training course.
Yemeni armed forces spokesperson Majed al-Nuzaili said the Houthis had fired three ballistic missiles at the camp.
The Houthis, officially known as Ansar Allah, have not yet commented on the attack.
The camp belongs to Shabwa's emergency forces and was hosting recruits from a newly formed military brigade at the time of the strike.
A source at a government hospital told The New Arab that the number of casualties was high, while other sources reported that Houthi drones had been flying over the area on Sunday evening, hours before the attack.
A Yemeni military source told Germany's DPA news agency that more than 30 soldiers had been killed and dozens of others wounded.
Social media users also circulated footage purportedly showing dead and wounded soldiers scattered across the military camp following the strikes. The New Arab could not independently verify the footage.
The attack comes amid an escalation in Yemen's conflict, with fighting continuing between government forces and the Houthis on several fronts, accompanied by increasingly hostile rhetoric and threats from the warring sides.
Fighting intensifies in Taiz
On Sunday evening, warplanes belonging to the Saudi-led coalition supporting Yemen's internationally recognised government carried out airstrikes on Houthi positions in the Dhi al-Birah and Najd Qasim areas of Al-Misrakh district, south of Taiz province.
Two additional strikes targeted Al-Wazi'iyah district in western Taiz.
The airstrikes coincided with an escalation in fighting around Jabal Sabir, where government forces and local resistance fighters have been attempting to repel Houthi attacks and infiltration attempts.
Sources told The New Arab that local resistance fighters from the village of Al-Rahn were engaged in fierce clashes with Houthi groups attempting to advance from the villages of Khurayshah and Al-Ma'yanah towards Al-Najjadah and neighbouring communities.
The sources said the Houthis were seeking to reach the summit of Jabal al-Arus and cut off a road connecting several villages and districts across the Sabir mountain area.
The clashes coincided with heavy Houthi attacks on the Al-Sina'a position on the opposite side of the front, following the group's reported loss of several positions in Al-Sanamat, Al-Sarari and Ambiyan.
Elsewhere in Taiz, an 11-year-old Yemeni girl was wounded by shrapnel to the head on Sunday evening after Houthi shelling struck the village of Al-Shaqab in Sabir al-Mawadim district, south of the province.
The latest violence comes as Yemen's long-running war continues to intensify, with renewed clashes and missile attacks threatening to deepen the country's humanitarian and security crisis.