Tuesday, October 20, 2026

53 recruits killed, 200 wounded in Houthi strikes in Yemen

Iran war: 53 recruits killed, 200 wounded in Houthi strikes in Yemen

By Christine Maguire

The Houthis hit a training centre in Yemen’s Shabwa governate with three ballistic missiles, killing at least 53 recruits and wounding more than 200 others with the death toll expected to rise.
Iran’s foreign minister says the United States launched the war “without Iran doing anything wrong” and now eight months later it cannot find a way out.
Several US embassies in the Middle East have issued identical security alerts for American citizens in the region citing threats of attack from Iran or the Iran-backed Houthis in Yemen.
Qatar is preparing to announce a new regional defence partnership aimed at strengthening its military capabilities as Gulf stability remains under threat after the US-Israel war on Iran began on February 28.

13m ago
(16:45 GMT)
MSF member attacked by Israeli settlers in occupied West Bank
Medical charity Doctors Without Borders (MSF) says Israeli settlers “violently assaulted” one of its staff in a southern village of the occupied West Bank last week.
MSF said the settlers used a slingshot to launch a “hand-sized rock” and the staffer required immediate medical attention.
Settlers armed with “batons, rifles, stun grenades and slingshots” attacked the village and drove Palestinian residents back.
“Over the past months communities across Hebron and other areas of the West Bank have been subjected to increased violence, indiscriminate intimidation, and insecurity,” MSF said in a statement.
“The violence experienced by our colleague, the barriers to reaching medical care, and the growing restrictions imposed on Palestinian communities are not coincidental,” it added.
“This is part of Israel’s strategy to undermine people’s safety, curtail their freedom of movement [and] access to healthcare, and ability to live in dignity.”
2:30
Gaza’s health system in ruins as Israel’s NGO restrictions cut lifesaving aid
27m ago
(16:30 GMT)
Deadly training centre attack likely to result in ‘further bloodshed’
By Yousef Mawry
Reporting from Sanaa, Yemen
This is considered the biggest attack by the Ansar Allah Houthi group against Yemen’s government forces since the escalation in fighting began last month.
In terms of the casualties, there’s been 53 killed and at least 200 injured – that number is expected to rise in the coming hours as most of the wounded are in critical condition.
Police in Shabwah governate, where the Houthi ballistic missiles struck, have banned the filming and sharing of images of the attack. There’s urgent appeals from hospitals for blood donations.
Houthi military spokesman Yahya Saree issued a statement warning people in Yemen not to join the internationally recognized government calling such a move “a death trap”.
Yemen’s Prime Minister Shaya al-Zindani called the targeting of the site in Shabwah “a terrorist attack”, and said despite the heavy casualties it “will not intimidate” government forces during their mission to retake control of the country from the Houthis.
Obviously, this is a very big event that has occurred here in Yemen. Many observers say this will lead to further fighting and bloodshed.
4:37
Houthi missiles strike military base in Yemen, killing at least 18
43m ago
(16:15 GMT)
Israeli attacks on Gaza kill at least five Palestinians
Renewed Israeli attacks across Gaza have killed at least five Palestinians, including two children, so far today, according to medical sources.
The children were killed in a drone strike in the Qizan Abu Rashwan area, south of Khan Younis, in southern Gaza.
Separately in northern Gaza, one person was killed and several others wounded, some seriously, in an attack on a tent in Sheikh Radwan. Another person was killed in a strike on al-Jalaa Street.
And in Gaza City, a strike behind Al-Taj Restaurant killed one person and wounded others.
Israeli attacks continue in the Gaza Strip despite a “ceasefire” agreed last October. More than 1,520 Palestinians have been killed and 5,420 wounded since then.
58m ago
(16:00 GMT)
Pakistan suspends Iran border trade, amid violence on both sides
By Abid Hussain
Islamabad, Pakistan – Pakistan has suspended trade with Iran at the Taftan and Gabd-Rimdan border crossing in Balochistan province.
Although the federal government has not commented publicly, the Quetta Chamber of Commerce and Industry in the provincial capital reported about 2,000 trucks are stuck on both sides of the border.
There are conflicting accounts as to the reason behind the move, which has been described as both a security measure to support counterterrorism and prevent smuggling, and as a result of technical issues.
Read more here.
Pakistan and Iran share a 900km border [File: Naseer Ahmed/Reuters]
1h ago
(15:45 GMT)
Iran’s navy says US forces hit Konark naval base; 2 troops wounded
The US military attacked the Konarak naval base with “two light projectiles” early this morning, says Iran’s navy.
Two Iranian soldiers were wounded in the strikes on the facility, located in a military complex in Sistan and Baluchestan province on the southeastern coast of Iran.
“The target of the American forces in the attack on the Iranian navy this morning was a 35mm cannon,” it added.
A satellite image shows a Iran’s port city of Konarak in April [Maxar Technologies/via Reuters]
1h ago
(15:35 GMT)
Yemen’s army says Houthi targets hit in al-Dhabab near Red Sea coast
Yemeni government forces say they have targeted Houthi positions and weapon caches in al-Dhabab, west of Taiz city.
The statement comes amid reports of heavy fighting along Yemen’s western coast for control over the strategic Bab al-Mandeb Strait.
1h ago
(15:30 GMT)
WATCH: Doctors describe hospitals shattered by Israel’s genocide in Gaza
Doctors who volunteered in Gaza have described working during Israel’s genocidal war, treating critically wounded patients without essential equipment, as damaged hospitals and a collapsing healthcare system continue to turn treatable conditions deadly.
Watch our report below:
2:59
Doctors describe hospitals shattered by Israel’s genocide in Gaza
1h ago
(15:15 GMT)
US-Israel war on Iran producing ‘historic’ shift in Middle East
The US-Israel war on Iran is creating a “historic” shift in the Middle East, with regional powers increasingly challenging decades of Western dominance, according to political analyst Rami Khouri.
He told Al Jazeera that the regional order established by Western powers a century ago is becoming increasingly unsustainable.
“Now, 100 years later, people in the region, mostly Iranians and Arabs and Turks, are reshaping the region in their own image, in a more legitimate way,” he said, adding that the existing order had benefited Western powers economically while failing to recognise the rights of people in the region.
It is “certainly being challenged and will almost certainly be changed in some form”.
“But the important thing is that for the first time, Indigenous local people are driving the process, which is really historic.”
Khouri also pointed to international support for Palestinians as a driving force behind the regional transformation.
“This is the last anti-colonial battle in the world. The last big one,” he said, adding that this was why the Palestinian struggle “gathers so much support and enthusiasm everywhere”.
1h ago
(15:00 GMT)
Qatar’s energy minister meets Iran’s petroleum minister in Doha
Qatar’s Energy Minister Saad Sherida al-Kaabi has met Iran’s acting Petroleum Minister Hamid Bovard in Doha where the pair discussed energy relations and cooperation.
Earlier on Monday, Deputy PM Sheikh Saoud said Qatar was “surprised” by Iranian attack in March on Ras Laffan industrial complex, a major LNG production hub.
Sheikh Saoud added that both sides had reached a “common understanding”.
2h ago
(14:46 GMT)
Houthis say military gatherings in Yemen targeted with ballistic missiles
The Houthis’ military spokesperson says the group targeted military gatherings in al-Saqya and Ras al-Ara areas in Yemen’s Lahj governorate using ballistic missiles.