ADEN: A Houthi missile attack Friday killed 26 members of pro-government forces in a camp east of the Yemeni capital Sanaa, hospital officials in the town of Al-Maarib said.
The news agency of the internationally recognized government said the attack took place during Friday prayers in Al-Maarib province, eastern Yemen.
The death toll is expected to rise, it said. A loyalist military source said the attack targeted the mosque at Kofel camp.
Lt. Gen. Ali Mohsen Saleh Al-Ahmar, Yemeni vice president, condemned the “heinous terrorist crime” targeting the mosque.
“It reveals the true face of the coup who violated the sanctity of mosques,” the official said in a statement to the Yemen News Agency.
“The militia’s coup perpetrated in this incident a double crime. They bombed the mosque and then re-targeted the medics who were trying to provide aid to the victims.”
The attack was carried out with Katyusha-type rockets, said an army official in Al-Maarib.
A rebel-controlled news agency said the Houthis had carried out the attack. It said the main weapon used was the Zelzal-1 Iranian-made missile and it was followed by artillery fire.
“Dozens of bodies of burned soldiers were evacuated from the site,” it said, without mentioning that a mosque had been hit.
Pro-government forces have retaken large parts of Al-Maarib province from Iran-backed Houthi rebels since the March 2015 launch of a Saudi-led intervention in favor of President Abed Rabbo Mansour Hadi.
26 Yemen soldiers killed in Houthi missile attack
26 Yemen soldiers killed in Houthi missile attack
