Three ballistic missiles struck recruits lined up in formation at the al-Alam training camp in Yemen’s southern Shabwa province on Monday, killing dozens of young men who were training to police their home province, Yemeni officials said. By Tuesday morning, Shabwa’s governor was putting the dead at 73, all aged 18 to 20, and said some were still missing. A senior Yemeni official told AP it was the deadliest strike since the fighting began escalating three months ago.

The governor, Awad al-Wazir, visited the wounded in hospitals on Monday and called for extra air defenses, saying his troops were fighting across six fronts.

The Iran-backed Houthis claimed the attack. It lands as Saudi Arabia, the main backer of Yemen’s government, has pressed Washington to join the fight. President Donald Trump rejected a request last month by Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman to join the kingdom’s strikes on the Houthis, then came close to ordering airstrikes a week later but again declined, two sources familiar with the matter told CBS News. Asked after the Oct. 10 attack on Riyadh’s main airport whether the U.S. would join Saudi strikes, Trump said, according to CBS News: “We may. We’re gonna look at it … We’ll make a decision. We move very quickly.”

Why Washington is watching

The fighting has come within reach of the Bab al-Mandeb, the strait at the southern mouth of the Red Sea and a chokepoint for global shipping. The Houthis pushed south along the Red Sea coast in September and took the port of Mokha, about 46 miles north of the strait. Government forces backed by Saudi-led air power say they have since retaken Mokha and much of that coast, and on Oct. 9 government troops were clashing with Houthi fighters in the Dhubab area at the mouth of the strait, Al Arabiya reported, citing military sources.

The United States lists the Houthis, formally known as Ansarallah, as a terrorist group. The State Department designated Ansarallah a foreign terrorist organization effective Jan. 19, 2021, and revoked that designation effective Feb. 16, 2021. It announced the group’s designation as a Specially Designated Global Terrorist on Jan. 17, 2024, effective Feb. 16, 2024, and designated it a foreign terrorist organization again effective March 5, 2025.

A toll that keeps changing

Each count so far comes from Yemeni government officials, and each reflects a different moment. Government sources first said at least 18 were dead, The National reported, citing Reuters. Later Monday, Shabwa’s provincial media office said in a preliminary assessment that 53 were killed and more than 200 injured. The Associated Press’ first story and the Guardian, updated at 12:15 p.m. CT, used that figure. The BBC headlined about 50 on Monday, citing local authorities.

Al-Wazir then told Reuters, in a report carried by Al-Monitor on Monday, that 58 people were killed, more than 200 were injured and 14 others were missing. On Tuesday, al-Wazir told AP that 73 had died, all new recruits. He did not say whether that figure included any of the 14 he had earlier listed as missing.

At least 15 of the dead came from a single tribe, a government official told AP, speaking anonymously. Several of the wounded were moved in life-threatening condition to hospitals in other provinces.

Rival accounts of the target

Yahya Saree, the Houthis’ military spokesman, said the missiles hit “the Saudi enemy’s mobilisations in al-Alam camp, which is run by Saudi officers in the eastern regions,” and that the strike caused “dozens of dead and wounded from the Saudi enemy’s mobilisations, including Saudi officers.” His claim that Saudi officers were among the casualties has not been independently verified. The Saudi authorities did not immediately respond to a Reuters request for comment.

Yemeni officials describe a very different place. “This had nothing to do with frontlines,” al-Wazir told AP. “They had not attacked anyone or advanced against anything. It was only to protect the security of their province.” A government spokesperson said the site was “a training centre where new recruits in the internal security forces of Shabwa governorate receive training and qualification programmes.” Rashad al-Alimi, who heads Yemen’s Presidential Leadership Council, promised a “firm response.”

The camp sits in Jardan district, north of the provincial capital, Ataq, on a supply line to neighboring Marib province.

The war reaches into Saudi Arabia

The Houthis have widened their attacks on the kingdom. A strike on Riyadh’s King Khalid International Airport on Oct. 10 killed 12 people, Saudi Arabia’s civil aviation authority said the next day. On Monday, the Houthis said they had again struck that airport and also targeted Abha International Airport, Saudi Aramco facilities at Yanbu, the Shaybah oil field and Saudi naval forces. Those claims came from the group alone.

Egypt’s parliament, weighing whether to send troops to Saudi Arabia, has put off a vote. Lawmakers are divided over the scope of the mission and whether Egyptian troops in the kingdom would become targets for Houthi attacks, the Guardian reported.

Also on Monday, organizers of the Future Investment Initiative, the Riyadh investor conference sometimes called “Davos in the Desert,” postponed it from Oct. 26–29 to 2027. Their statement cited a “deep commitment” to partners and delegates and, The Washington Post reported, “did not directly reference Houthi attacks.” Listed speakers had included JPMorgan Chase’s Jamie Dimon and BlackRock’s Larry Fink.

Al-Alimi phoned U.N. Secretary-General António Guterres on Monday to ask that the United Nations classify the Houthis as a foreign terrorist organization, the Guardian reported.

On Tuesday, after an explosion was heard in northern Riyadh, Saudi Arabia said it had intercepted a ballistic missile fired by the Houthis.