Two Houthi missile attacks hit a military training centre in Yemen’s Al-Dhalea governorate and a detention facility in Lahj governorate on Wednesday, November 4, killing at least nine people and wounding 50, according to an initial toll compiled by the South24 Center from medical and military sources. The figures are preliminary — South24 said they were gathered as of 11:21 am on Wednesday and could change.
Source: South24 Center
A medical source told South24 Center that seven newly recruited personnel were killed and 50 others wounded in the strike on the training centre in northern Al-Dhalea. South24’s correspondent reported earlier on Wednesday morning that Houthi forces had fired ballistic missiles at the vicinity of the Al-Allalah military camp in Qatabah District, northern Al-Dhalea, amid initial reports of casualties.
Source: South24 Center
Al Jazeera’s account of the Al-Dhalea strike differs in detail. A military source told the network that a Houthi ballistic missile struck a military training camp in Al-Dhalea, killing eight people and wounding more than 15, and its correspondent, citing field sources, said the missile hit a gathering of recruits at the al-Jumaima camp in northern Al-Dhalea. Al Jazeera noted that no official toll has been released and that some Yemeni media reported higher figures. The camp’s name and the toll therefore differ between the two reports, and neither has been confirmed by an official statement.
Source: Al Jazeera
Second strike hits a detention facility in Lahj
In the second attack, a military source told South24 Center, two people were killed early on Wednesday when a Houthi missile struck a detention facility housing prisoners and individuals wanted by security authorities near the iron factory in Lahj Governorate. South24 did not report wounded in the Lahj strike in its initial account.
Source: South24 Center
After the Al-Dhalea attack, appeals were issued urging residents to donate blood at Al-Nasr Hospital and at the field hospital in Sanah to help treat the wounded, South24 reported — an indication of the pressure the casualties placed on local medical facilities.
Source: South24 Center
What is solid
- Two Houthi missile attacks struck sites in Al-Dhalea and Lahj governorates on Wednesday, November 4, South24 Center and Al Jazeera both reported
- South24’s initial toll, from medical and military sources, was nine killed and 50 wounded across the two attacks
- Appeals for blood donations were issued for Al-Nasr Hospital and the Sanah field hospital after the Al-Dhalea strike, South24 reported
What is only claimed
- The Al-Dhalea toll and the camp’s name: South24 reported seven recruits killed and 50 wounded at a training centre near the Al-Allalah camp in Qatabah District; Al Jazeera reported eight killed and more than 15 wounded at what it called the al-Jumaima camp — no official toll has been released
- Neither report carried a Houthi claim of responsibility or denial specifically for Wednesday’s Al-Dhalea and Lahj strikes
Fighting escalates on several fronts
The missile attacks came on a day of widening fighting. Yemen’s internationally recognised government forces said on Wednesday they had pushed further into the al-Dahida mountain range in eastern al-Jawf province, storming Houthi fortifications in an offensive — Operation Dawn of Yemen — now in its second month, Al Jazeera reported. Government forces also said they had carried out air strikes on Houthi positions in western Taiz province and recaptured positions in al-Maqatira district in northern Lahij.
Source: Al Jazeera
The al-Jawf advance itself was reported earlier — government forces announced they had recaptured strategic heights east of al-Hazm, the provincial capital. Read that earlier development here: Government forces recapture al-Jawf heights east of al-Hazm
Houthi-affiliated media, for their part, reported four air strikes on a Central Security Forces camp in the city of al-Bayda and a strike on a health centre in al-Silw district in Taiz, and claimed that strikes from Saudi Arabia, which backs the Aden government, had killed civilians over two days this week, Al Jazeera reported. Those claims are the Houthi side’s account and were not independently confirmed in the report.
Source: Al Jazeera
The strikes also land a day after Yemen’s government accused Iran’s Revolutionary Guards and Hezbollah of directly supervising Houthi operations — an accusation Hezbollah rejected as baseless. That earlier story is here: Yemen accuses IRGC and Hezbollah of sending 21 experts to back Houthis
Background: a war in its second month of escalation
Yemen’s government forces, backed by Saudi Arabia, have been battling the Iran-aligned Houthis across several provinces since the Houthis seized the western Red Sea coast and the Bab al-Mandeb area in September, Al Jazeera reported. Training camps full of new recruits have been among the deadliest targets of this war: in October, a Houthi missile attack on the al-Alam training camp in Shabwa province killed 58 recruits and wounded more than 200, according to the provincial governor, in reporting by Reuters. Wednesday’s Al-Dhalea strike hit the same kind of target — a gathering of newly recruited personnel.
Source: Al Jazeera / Reuters background
What happens next
South24 stressed that its toll is initial and could rise or be revised as hospitals and military sources update their counts, and no official toll from Yemen’s government or military had been released in either report. Whether the Houthis claim Wednesday’s attacks — and whether government and coalition air strikes answer them, as Houthi-affiliated media already allege in Taiz and al-Bayda — will shape the next days of an offensive that President Rashad al-Alimi, head of the Presidential Leadership Council, has said will continue until state authority is restored across the country, Al Jazeera reported.
Source: South24 Center / Al Jazeera