Houthis strike Yemen camps, killing at least 30 troops

Missiles and drones struck several Yemeni military camps in Marib and Hadramawt on Thursday, killing at least 30 government troops and signaling that Yemen’s conflict could be edging back toward a more dangerous phase. Government sources said the death toll could rise after the attacks hit camps run by the Emergency Forces in the al-Ruwaik area of Marib and in Hadramawt.

The Houthis said they carried out the strikes in response to an alleged Saudi military buildup and claimed they had targeted “large Saudi military build-ups” at the camps. The attacks, described in local and international reports as among the deadliest in months, showed the group still has the ability to combine missiles and drones against fixed government positions in central Yemen.

The provinces hit carry weight well beyond the casualty count. Marib has long been one of Yemen’s most sensitive battlegrounds, and Hadramawt borders Saudi Arabia while helping supply the Marib frontline. That makes both areas central to any shift in the war’s military balance, and any new pressure there would quickly reverberate through Saudi border security, Yemen’s eastern corridors and the wider regional security picture.

Al Jazeera described the strike on the government military camp in Hadramawt as the fiercest military escalation in Yemen since 2022. The timing matters because it cuts against the appearance of a managed confrontation between the Houthis and Saudi Arabia, suggesting that de-escalation remains vulnerable to rapid collapse if either side believes the other is massing forces or preparing a new offensive.

The latest assault also underscored how the war in Yemen remains linked to broader shipping and security concerns beyond the battlefield in Marib and Hadramawt. Any renewed fighting in central and eastern Yemen raises the risk of wider instability around routes that matter to regional trade, energy flows and maritime security, even when the fighting itself is far from the coast.