Houthi strikes on army camps kill dozens of Yemeni troops

What happened

• A military source told AFP that 58 soldiers died; TASS and The National, citing military and government sources, reported at least 45.
• Earlier medical sources counted 38 dead and 29 wounded, according to Le Monde.
• Houthi military spokesman Yahya Saree said the strikes hit camps of the Saudi-backed First and Third Emergency Divisions.
• The Saudi-led coalition said Houthi shelling in Najran wounded 11 people, including a four-year-old, two Egyptians, a Yemeni and a Pakistani.
• Fighting between the Houthis and Saudi Arabia resumed last month, after an Iranian plane from Tehran tried to land in Sanaa.

The view from outside

TASS names no Saudi role and frames the strikes as local clashes in a war running since 2014, adding that the Houthis had pushed at government lines in southern Hodeidah a day earlier. Le Monde ties the escalation to the US-Iran war and Iran's closure of the Strait of Hormuz.

What could happen next

• Death tolls diverge across military, medical and government sources; Houthi claims of hundreds of casualties among Saudi-aligned fighters remain unconfirmed.
• A Saudi admiral took command of a new Red Sea maritime alliance the same day, The National reports; its effect on the Houthi blockade is untested.
• Whether the fighting spreads beyond Marib, Hadhramaut and the Saudi border region of Najran is unresolved.