Saudi Arabia's lack of air defense capabilities is causing increasing damage to the kingdom and its interests in the area where Houthi missiles hit a Saudi-controlled training base in Yemen's Shabwa province on October 19, killing at least 75 people and injuring more than 200, including Saudi soldiers. Saudi and Yemeni officials briefed on the attack said it was "the deadliest Houthi attack so far in the current war." Within minutes, three rockets hit the Al Alam camp as Saudi officers began training local recruits. Eyewitnesses reported that three battalions were in the camp when the first attack occurred, and one of the subsequent rockets hit the recruits as they fled the first blast. For several days before the attack, drones circled the base. Relatives of the dead and wounded blamed the local Yemeni commander for the incident, accusing him of ignoring warnings. The base lacks air defense and early warning systems, officials said, and Shabwa provincial authorities are now pressing Riyadh to provide them as soon as possible.

Saudi Arabia's lack of air defense capabilities is causing increasing damage to the kingdom and its interests in the area where Houthi missiles hit a Saudi-controlled training base in Yemen's Shabwa province on October 19, killing at least 75 people and injuring more than 200, including Saudi soldiers. Saudi and Yemeni officials briefed on the attack said it was "the deadliest Houthi attack so far in the current war." Within minutes, three rockets hit the Al Alam camp as Saudi officers began training local recruits. Eyewitnesses reported that three battalions were in the camp when the first attack occurred, and one of the subsequent rockets hit the recruits as they fled the first blast. For several days before the attack, drones circled the base. Relatives of the dead and wounded blamed the local Yemeni commander for the incident, accusing him of ignoring warnings. The base lacks air defense and early warning systems, officials said, and Shabwa provincial authorities are now pressing Riyadh to provide them as soon as possible.