Aden (South24)

More than 40 soldiers were killed or wounded on Thursday, August 6, in a preliminary toll from an attack claimed by the Houthis on a camp belonging to the Yemeni Emergency Forces in the border area of Ruwik in Hadramout Governorate, a military source told South24 Center.

Local sources told South24 that aerial strikes hit positions belonging to the 23rd Mechanized Brigade in Al-Abr District, Hadramout, causing casualties as rescue and evacuation operations remained underway.

One local source said three wounded personnel had arrived at medical facilities following the strike, while other sources said the first wave of attacks targeted three barracks inside the Ruwik camp.

A source told South24 that one Saudi national was killed and four others were wounded while present at one of the targeted positions. Saudi authorities have not commented on the information.

Another source said the overall casualty toll from the attacks was significantly higher.

Houthi military spokesperson Yahya Saree said in a statement that the group had targeted Saudi military concentrations in Ruwik, Al-Abr, Al-Thaniyah and other camps in eastern Yemen after monitoring their movements.

He added that the attack was carried out using a large number of ballistic missiles and drones.

Yemen’s Ministry of Defence, affiliated with the internationally recognised government, said in a statement that the “treacherous attack” targeted members of the armed forces while they were “carrying out their national duty to secure liberated areas and international roads, and to confront the militia’s schemes and its affiliated smuggling networks.”

The ministry vowed that the army would respond to the attack “at the appropriate time and place.”

Yemeni sources said the attack targeted positions belonging to the Emergency Forces, the Nation’s Shield Forces and the First Military Region. All three forces are supported and funded by Saudi Arabia.

The Yemeni Emergency Forces, affiliated with the First Division, said the Houthi militia had attacked armed forces and Emergency Forces camps in the Hadramout desert, causing human and material losses.

In a statement, the force condemned the Houthi militia’s attacks on military camps in Hadramout.

The US Embassy also condemned the attack, describing it as a Houthi “terrorism against Yemeni people.”

In a related development, local sources said an air-launched missile struck the Al-Rayyan area in Yemen’s Al-Jawf Governorate, where tribesmen have been gathering for several weeks in response to a call issued by tribal leader Sheikh Ahmed bin Fadgham.

The nature of the targets and the extent of the damage remain unclear.

A local source told South24 Center that drones continued flying over Al-Abr District following the attack, coinciding with an outage affecting the Yemen Mobile telecommunications network in the district.

Al-Abr is of considerable military and geographical importance because of its location along desert routes connecting Hadramout with Al-Jawf and Marib governorates.

In recent weeks, the area has witnessed security, tribal and military movements linked to front lines with the Houthis in northern and eastern Yemen.

The attack came days after security and tribal tensions in Al-Abr city and the Hadramout desert following the assassination of southern Salafi commander Osama Al-Radfani and several of his companions.

The killing was followed by a raid by the Yemeni Emergency Forces on the home of Kinda tribal leader Ali bin Ali Hatfan Al-Siri, according to tribal sources who spoke to South24 Center.

The Emergency Forces are a predominantly northern Salafi force backed by Saudi Arabia. With Saudi air support, they took control of Wadi Hadramout in January after Saudi air strikes targeted southern forces aligned with the Southern Transitional Council, prompting their withdrawal from the governorate.