The Associated Press reported 60 people killed in a Houthi strike on a Yemeni security training center, while the Saudi-led coalition said it intercepted a separate missile headed for Riyadh.
AP cited three Yemeni officials for its Oct. 20 toll from the Oct. 19 attack in Shabwa province. The officials said more than 200 people were wounded and at least a dozen remained missing.
Shabwa’s governor gave Reuters an earlier count of 58 dead, more than 200 wounded and 14 missing. The province’s local authority initially reported more than 53 recruits killed and more than 200 wounded, as covered in EconoTimes’ earlier report on the strike. It described that count as preliminary.
The local authority named the facility as the Ahmed al-Sulaimani training center and said the recruits were preparing for internal security duties. In a separate account, Houthi military spokesman Yahya Saree said his forces struck a camp he called Al-Alam. His statement did not identify the training center named by Shabwa’s authority.
The Saudi-led coalition’s spokesman said on Oct. 20 that the coalition had intercepted a Houthi ballistic missile headed toward Riyadh. United Nations special envoy for Yemen Hans Grundberg had told the Security Council on Oct. 9 that fighting had spread to the Bab al-Mandab coast and other fronts. He said attacks had also hit civilian and energy infrastructure in Saudi Arabia.
U.S. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth disclosed a visit to American troops serving in U.S. Central Command’s area in an Oct. 20 social media post. He did not specify where he went. Axios and CBS News separately reported, citing unnamed sources, that Hegseth met Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in Israel.
Shabwa’s local authority said the wounded were receiving treatment and that it had directed additional medical support. It said salaries for the dead recruits’ families would be made permanent and called for stronger air defenses and early-warning systems.
