RIYADH’S WAR ON YEMEN
Saudi Officers Among Scores Killed in Yemeni Missile Strike
SANA’A -- Yemeni armed forces dealt one of the deadliest blows of the renewed war on Monday, firing ballistic missiles into a Saudi training camp in Shabwa province and killing at least 53 recruits, with the military saying Saudi officers were among the casualties and announced further missile strikes on enemy positions in Lahij.
The attack on the Ahmed Al-Sulaimani Training Center inside the Al-Alam military base in Jardan district, near the provincial
capital Ataq, struck as newly recruited “internal security personnel” were assembled.
More than 200 were wounded, with hospitals across the province mobilized and the most critically injured transferred to facilities in Aden and Hadramawt. The toll was preliminary and likely to rise, the provincial fugitive authorities said.
Brigadier General Yahya Saree, spokesman for the Yemeni armed forces in Sana’a, said the missiles targeted “Saudi enemy mobilizations” at Al-Alam camp, which he said is run by Saudi officers in the eastern regions.
“The targeting resulted in the fall of dozens of dead and wounded from the Saudi enemy’s mobilizations, including Saudi officers,” Saree said in a statement carried by the Sana’a-based Saba news agency.
In a second operation, Saree said the armed forces struck six positions of Saudi-backed forces in the Al-Suqya and Ras al-Ara areas of Lahij province with six ballistic missiles, declaring precise hits that killed and wounded dozens and destroyed several combat vehicles.
He warned “those who have been deceived” against responding to Saudi recruitment efforts, saying they are being lured “with tainted money to the pyres of death” in place of Saudi soldiers.
The strike came amid a wider advance by Ansarullah-led Yemeni forces that has redrawn front lines along Yemen’s Red Sea coast.
In recent weeks, they have captured more than 5,400 square kilometers of territory, including the strategic port city of Al-Mokha, the Bab al-Mandab Strait and the towns of Al-Khawkhah and Dhubab.
A correspondent reporting from Al-Mokha, described the port as “a graveyard for Saudi mercenaries” and said seven enemy divisions comprising 38 brigades had been forced to retreat despite sustained air support.
A Saudi airstrike on a home in Sahar district of Sa’ada province on Sunday killed at least 10 civilians, including seven children and one woman, and wounded 23 others. Saba reported the toll had risen to 33 killed and wounded.
Monday’s attack also came as fighting intensifies on multiple fronts, including around the besieged city of Ta’izz.
The escalation has forced Riyadh back into coordination with Abu Dhabi, despite their deep disagreements over Yemen’s future.
Saudi Defense Minister Khalid bin Salman met Emirati President Mohamed bin Zayed in Abu Dhabi on Sunday, days after The Guardian reported that the UAE had agreed to resume financial support for Saudi mercenaries, with Saudi Arabia providing air cover.
The UAE had withdrawn from military aggression in Yemen in January and halted funding to forces including the so-called Giant Brigades, which it had trained and equipped, after disagreements with Riyadh over control of the south.
In Cairo, the Egyptian Democratic Civil Movement condemned any participation of Egyptian armed forces in the war against Yemen and warned of its consequences.
The movement was responding to President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi’s request for parliamentary authorization to take measures to support Saudi Arabia, a vote that was postponed to Monday amid public rejection of potential deployment.
The movement said it opposed “linking Egypt’s position to the dictates of any foreign party,” and called on civil opposition forces to prepare for the coming presidential election.
Egyptian activists argued the army exists to defend Egypt, not to absorb the costs of a war tied to Saudi regional calculations.