Houthi strikes on Yemen's biggest air base kill 30 pro-government troops

ADEN -- Strikes on Yemen's largest air base Sunday (August 29) killed at least 30 pro-government troops and wounded scores more, medical and government sources said, blaming the Iran-backed Houthis.

The strikes were carried out on al-Anad air base, some 60km north of Yemen's second city Aden in the south of the conflict-riven country.

The air base served as the headquarters for US troops until they pulled out in March 2015, shortly before the Houthis overran the area.

More than 30 have been killed and at least 106 were injured at the military facility in the government-held southern province of Lahj, according to the Yemeni minister of health.

Armed forces spokesman Mohammed al-Naqib said the Houthis fired ballistic missiles and carried out a drone attack at the base.

Yemeni President Abd Rabbu Mansour Hadi offered condolences for the dead and vowed that the "Houthis will pay heavily for all the crimes they have committed against the people of Yemen", the state news agency Saba reported.

There was no immediate comment from the Houthi side.

Video footage from the scene showed dozens of people gathered in front of Lahj hospital, where one ambulance after another was pulling up to drop off casualties.

An official from the hospital said it was all hands on deck.

"We have called on the entire staff, surgeons and nurses, to come in," Mohsen Murshid said.

"We also know that there are still bodies under the rubble."

Doctors Without Borders (MSF) tweeted that one of its hospitals in Aden received 11 wounded afterward.

"They were provided with the necessary medical and surgical assistance and they were discharged from the hospital," MSF said.

Air base attacked in 2019

Yemen's internationally recognised government -- backed by a Saudi-led military coalition -- and the Houthis have been locked in war since 2014, when the Iran-backed group seized the capital Sanaa.

In 2019, the Houthis said they launched a drone strike on al-Anad during a military parade, with medics and government sources saying that at least six pro-government people were killed -- including a high-ranking intelligence official.

Footage showed a drone exploding over a podium around which dozens of military personnel were standing.

Eleven people were wounded, including Yemeni deputy chief of staff Maj. Gen. Saleh al-Zandani, who later died of his injuries.

Intelligence Brig. Gen. Saleh Tamah and senior army commander Fadel Hasan were among the wounded, along with Lahj governor Ahmad Abdullah al-Turki.

Al-Anad was recaptured by government forces in August 2015 as they recovered territory from the Houthis across the south with support from the coalition.

Sunday's incident is one of the deadliest since December 30, when blasts targeting cabinet members rocked Aden airport.

At the time, at least 26 people, including three members of the International Committee of the Red Cross and a journalist, were killed and scores wounded in the explosions as ministers disembarked from an aircraft in the southern city.

Yemen's internationally recognised government and southern separatists had formed a new power-sharing cabinet on December 18, and had arrived in Aden December 30, days after being sworn in.

One week earlier, on December 11, both sides had begun a reciprocal withdrawal of forces in Abyan province under the terms of the power-sharing agreement signed in Riyadh.

Yemen's grinding conflict has claimed tens of thousands of lives and displaced millions, resulting in what the United Nations (UN) calls the world's worst humanitarian crisis.

The incoming UN special envoy for Yemen, Hans Grundberg, will officially assume his duties on September 5.