At least 50 Yemeni government forces were killed in a strike by Houthi rebels on a military camp in the south of the country on Monday, military officials said.

The group fired three ballistic missiles at the al-Alam camp in the province of Shabwa. Some 200 recruits were also wounded, according to the provincial government.

The Houthis confirmed that they had targeted the camp.

Deadliest attack in recent surge of violence in Yemen

Military sources had originally put the death toll at 30, but this rose to at least 50 later in the day, with the Associated Press giving a toll of 53 and citing provincial authorities.

"The death toll has risen to at least 50, with more than 100 people injured, some of them in critical condition," Fahad al-Khalifi, deputy governor of Shabwa said, according to AFP.

Al-Khalifi added that local hospitals had been overwhelmed and some of the more seriously wounded had been transferred to facilities in other provinces.

The increased death toll makes Monday's attack one of the deadliest in the recent uptick of violence in Yemen.

Yemeni government vows response to Houthi attack

Fighting in Yemen between the Iran-backed Houthis and the Saudi-backed government has been going on for years, but the US-Israeli war on Iran and other factors have sparked renewed fighting in the peninsula, with the Houthis also carrying out major attacks on Saudi Arabian soil.

Officials said that the soldiers who were killed and wounded in the attack had been recruits for a new Rapid Intervention force which is supposed to defend the local area.

The missiles reportedly struck while they were lining up in formation ahead of training.

Rashad al-Alimi, head of the ruling Presidential Leadership Council, vowed a "firm response" for the killing of the recruits and said the attack reflects the Houthis' "approach of resorting to cowardly terrorist attacks whenever they face pressures or their Iranian-backed sabotage plots falter."

Monday's strikes follow several attacks over the weekend that killed more than 30 people in Houthi-held areas. The Houthis have blamed Saudi-led forces for the attacks.

Edited by: Wesley Dockery

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