Yemeni Conflict: News #2

Hey, don't get me wrong, personally I would like to see Russia have nothing to do with KSA, but at the end of the day they sell weapons and right now most of their former warsaw pact allies and ex soviet republics are not buying from Russia... they need to find markets elsewhere and KSA has deep pockets.

They even sell rocket motors to the US and I am sure if the US decided to buy other Russian products the Russians would sell them to them.

For instance in the 1990s they sold a Tunguska to the UK and an SA-12 system to the US, though the latter did not come with all the bells and whistles...

If the US wanted to buy things from Russia I am sure they would be happy to sell them things... whether it is Hip helos for Afghanistan or just ammo for their small arms or anti armour weapons....

But Russia will sell to KSA just like Iran will buy Boeings and Airbus's.

It is not about sale by sale. Russia takes into account what they have in the hands (S-400) and the use it will receive in Turkey and Saudi Arabia.

Which aircrafts and missiles would Russia expect to be shut down by the potential units of S-400 to give to Turkey and Saudi Arabia?

Thinking about it, everyone has the answer about what Russia will do by the end.

Visc wrote:But hey, business is business I guess?

Not quite. A country like the US would react differently if they had their jets deliberately shot down while performing COIN missions over a third-party's airspace.



Russian establishment seems to prefer cash these days.

ATLASCUB wrote:
If anyone should be bothered would be Iran but Iran is not planning an invasion of Saudi Arabia anytime soon

Or as long s the US remains the predominant global power. Look what happened to Saddam.

Saudi's collapse is much more likely to happen as a result of internal strife rather than an invasion by a third party.

Right. It's remarkable that so long after the fall of most monarchies in the region, the saudi one persists. With luck, though, failures in Syria, Lebanon and hopefully Yemen too, coupled with internal issues, will push that archaic system over the edge.

eehnie wrote:It is not about sale by sale. Russia takes into account what they have in the hands (S-400) and the use it will receive in Turkey and Saudi Arabia.

Which aircrafts and missiles would Russia expect to be shut down by the potential units of S-400 to give to Turkey and Saudi Arabia?

Thinking about it, everyone has the answer about what Russia will do by the end.

KiloGolf wrote:

Russian establishment seems to prefer cash these days.

You failed in the in this sentence.

[quote="starman"]

ATLASCUB wrote:
If anyone should be bothered would be Iran but Iran is not planning an invasion of Saudi Arabia anytime soon

Or as long s the US remains the predominant global power. Look what happened to Saddam. [ /quote]

Predominant doesn't mean all mighty. Nobody will let US invade Iran. If this would be an option war was already started. They didn't invade Syria to topple Assad for good reason.

KiloGolf wrote:

Russian establishment seems to prefer cash these days.

At first sight it looks like that but we do not know what is behind closed doors. I am very sorry to people of Yemen but I am afraid no quick solution[ is here.

This video shows the impact of Toshka-U. A system used against Saoudia arabia by houtis.

KiloGolf wrote:

Visc wrote:But hey, business is business I guess?

Not quite. A country like the US would react differently if they had their jets deliberately shot down while performing COIN missions over a third-party's airspace.

......................

Russian establishment seems to prefer cash these days.

These days cash = power (same as any days in fact...)

And given news coming out of Turkey lately I'd say it was a good deal (granted, it did look pretty lame back then)

Not quite. A country like the US would react differently if they had their jets deliberately shot down while performing COIN missions over a third-party's airspace.

You mean the way the Americans ignored the Israelis attacking and almost sinking a US spy ship in international waters....

Flipflops with uprated firepower. Mind you he upgraded his footware as well.

JohninMK wrote:Flipflops with uprated firepower. Mind you he upgraded his footware as well.

Yup, you keep what you kill...

Cynical opinion but probably bang on the money.

Elijah J. Magnier‏ @ejmalrai
54m54 minutes ago

Although Saudi Arabia succeeded in destroying #Yemen & starved its inhabitants to death (helped by the US and UK & a blind Media) it has failed to impose its will & needs a way out.+

The world conscious is suddenly waking up? Do you see this today after 33 months?

This is why we suddenly hear the UN and the international community realising only in the last week the seize of human tragedy in #Yemen

In fact, the World is actually helping Mohamad Bin Salman to come down from the Yemen tree he is stuck in, by condemning the Saudi war on #Yemen (started in March 2015).

Just in case you have not seen it elsewhere a bit of a civil war within a civil war broke out in Yemen at the end of last week. All kinds of claims from the Saudi Coalition but it seems to have been Saleh trying to change sides, again, for his own benefit. Now things seem to have settled down.


SANA'A, Yemen - The Houthis have entered President Ali Abdallah Saleh’s residence in Yemen's capital of Sana’a.

His whereabouts still remain unknown however.

His party has issued a statement denying siding by Saudi Arabia and calling for diffusing tensions with the Houthis.

The Saleh faction and the Houthis were only last week allied against the Saudi aggression on Yemen.

However, in a bid to monopolize his power, he attempted to kick out the Houthi militia from Sana'a.

Although making initial advancements, the Houthis have nearly completely taken the city, demonstrating Saleh's gamble was a failure.

http://www.fort-russ.com/2017/12/houthis-continue-making-advancements.html


Also it looks like the Houtis have launched an Iranian cruise missile to wards the nuke plant under construction in UAE but it failed en route. Probably smuggled over land and assembled in Yemen, looks like second motor may not have fired up.

JohninMK wrote:Just in case you have not seen it elsewhere a bit of a civil war within a civil war broke out in Yemen at the end of last week. All kinds of claims from the Saudi Coalition but it seems to have been Saleh trying to change sides, again, for his own benefit. Now things seem to have settled down.

Houthis killed him just now.

Yemen: Interior Ministry confirmed: Ali Abdallah sales is dead

calm wrote:

JohninMK wrote:Just in case you have not seen it elsewhere a bit of a civil war within a civil war broke out in Yemen at the end of last week. All kinds of claims from the Saudi Coalition but it seems to have been Saleh trying to change sides, again, for his own benefit. Now things seem to have settled down.

Houthis killed him just now.
Yemen: Interior Ministry confirmed: Ali Abdallah sales is dead

This is how it's done.

Houties did not want to have their own version of Plotinsky. Smart move, shit like this needs to be strangled in the crib.

Al Jazeera Yemen resistance fire cruise missile UAE nuclear reactor مقاومت یمن موشک کروز به امارات





Yemen ex-President Saleh killed by Houthis – Iranian media citing sources
https://www.rt.com/news/411854-yemens-ex-president-saleh-killed/


18+
https://imgur.com/4Bcbw8R

US missile defenses fired 5 shots at an incoming target — and it looks like they all missed

A ballistic missile attack on a Saudi Arabia airport was reportedly taken out by a US missile interceptor, but new analysis shows that probably didn't happen.

The US missile defense system firing 5 shots and missing all 5 shows a weakness in the defenses as Saudi Arabia's enemies seem intent on firing more and more missiles.

http://www.businessinsider.com/us-missile-defenses-fired-5-saudi-houthi-riyadh-missed-2017-12

In late November, a missile fired from Iranian-backed Houthi militants in Yemen came streaking through the sky towards Riyadh's airport in Saudi Arabia's capital.

The Saudis spotted the incoming fire, and shot off five missile interceptors to stop the threat.

“Our system knocked the missile out of the air,” President Donald Trump later said of the incident. “That's how good we are. Nobody makes what we make, and now we're selling it all over the world.”

But new analysis from the New York Times suggests that the missile's failure was a fluke, and the missile interceptors all missed.

Essentially, the parts of the Houthi-fired missile that crashed down in Saudi Arabia indicate that the interceptors, fired from a Patriot Advanced Capability 3 system, did not hit the warhead as they were supposed to.

Instead, an interceptor probably hit a part of the missile tube that had detached from the warhead, the Times found. The warhead likely continued to travel unimpeded to where it blew up outside the airport. Witnesses reported hearing the explosion, and satellite imagery uncovered by the Times suggests that emergency vehicles responded to the blast.

The missile, an old Scud variant, can be expected to miss by about a kilometer or so. The Scuds are old and prone to error, and the older Scuds used by the Houthis are relatively cheap.

But the missile system used by the US cost a few million each and has been touted by defense officials as one of the most advanced in the world.

In South Korea, the same missile defense systems and technologies defend US troops and thousands of lives from North Korean missile strikes.

japan patriot missile Members of the Japan Self-Defence Forces stand guard near Patriot Advanced Capability-3 (PAC-3) land-to-air missiles, deployed at the Defense Ministry in Tokyo, Japan, December 7, 2012. REUTERS/Issei Kato

"You shoot five times at this missile and they all miss? That's shocking,” Laura Grego, a missile expert at the Union of Concerned Scientists told the Times. “That's shocking because this system is supposed to work.”

The threat from Houthi missile fires isn't going anywhere. Houthis in Yemen have fired missiles at Saudi Arabia before, and over the weekend reportedly fired a cruise missile at a nuclear energy site in Abu Dhabi, in the United Arab Emirates.

The cruise missile, like the ballistic missile, resembled closely Iranian missiles, suggesting Tehran supplied them.

The failure of the missile defenses against even a short range missile like the one the Houthis fired in Riyadh's airport may give second thought to the claim that US missile defenses can be trusted to deter conflict in the Middle East, where military tensions have only escalated.

PapaDragon wrote:
This is how it's done.

Houties did not want to have their own version of Plotinsky. Smart move, shit like this needs to be strangled in the crib.

Saleh was never a trustworthy ally. Ansarallah was prepared for this.


Al-Houthi on death of Saleh: “We have thwarted major threat to Yemen’s security”

Sayyid Abdul-Malik Badreddin al-Houthi, the leader of Yemeni political party and resistance movement Ansarullah (also known as the Houthi movement), has stated that the movement has thwarted a major threat to the security of Yemen by suppressing the military takeover attempt by former president Ali Abdullah Saleh.

The Ansarullah leader spoke to his followers on Monday, after news came out that Saleh had been shot and killed during an ambush. According to Houthi, Saleh betrayed the trust of Ansarullah by switching sides and turning against his former ally on Thursday. He continued by stating that even after the apparent switch of allegiance, there had been negotiations in which Ansarullah had asked Saleh to come back from his decision.

“However, they declined our request and continued with their wrong pro-Saudi approach and ended up with blocking the capital’s streets (…) They intended to do the same in other provinces and cities … but today, this plot was defeated very quickly,” Houthi said.

Abdul-Malik al-Houthi furthermore stated that Saleh had effectively sided with the Saudi-led coalition in the final days of his life, and that his sudden change of heart had taken Yemen by surprise, including many in Saleh’s own General People’s Congress (GPC) party. Furthermore, the Ansarullah leader claimed that Saleh’s militias had coordinated their attempted takeover of the capital city of Sana’a with Saudi airstrikes that rocked the Yemeni capital throughout the weekend.

Houthi concluded by warning against any retaliation attacks against individual members of the General People’s Congress, and forbade any form of violence against the party, claiming that the GPC itself was not responsible for Saleh’s actions.

Ali Abdullah Saleh was the president of North Yemen (officially the Yemen Arab Republic) from 1978 to 1990, and subsequently president of the united Republic of Yemen from 1990 until being forced out by a popular revolution in 2011. During his reign, Saleh was known as a military strongman who regularly resorted to violence to quell unrest, notably by killing Hussein Badreddin al-Houthi, the founder of the Ansarullah movement and elder brother to Abdul-Malik al-Houthi.

After abdicating in 2011 in favour of Abdrabbuh Mansur Hadi, Saleh established closer ties to the Houthi movement, eventually declaring an alliance between his General People’s Congress and Ansarullah after the September 2014 revolution that brought the Houthis to power. However, after Thursday’s celebrations in honour of the birthday of the Prophet Muhammad in Sana’a, Saleh switched sides yet again and declared his opposition to Ansarullah, leading to fierce clashes between his militia forces and troops loyal to Ansarullah. On Monday, Saleh was killed in a shootout, with sources still disputing whether he died at home in Sana’a or on the way to the central Yemeni city of Ma’rib.

Ansarallah forces capture Republican Guard HQ from Saleh’s troops


Armed forces loyal to Ansarullah, also known as the Houthis, have successfully captured the Republican Guard general command building in the capital of Sana’a, after driving troops supporting former president Ali Abdullah Saleh from the area on Sunday. This is reported by the Ansarullah Media Center.

Fierce clashes erupted between Ansarullah and the followers of Saleh after the former Yemeni president, who was ousted from power in 2011 but sided with Ansarullah after the 2014 September Revolution, turned against his former allies on Thursday. While Saleh’s forces, mainly coming from the Yemeni Republican Guard and military, overrun much of the Yemeni capital on Friday and Saturday, reports indicate that Ansarullah has recaptured much of the city since. The capture of the Republican Guard headquarters is another blow to the power base of the Saleh loyalists.

Also on Sunday, Ansarullah forces raided and shut down the television network Yemen Today, which was known for its support of Saleh and his General People’s Congress (GPC) party.

Saleh was ambushed and killed while trying to get away. Too bad eh, KSA?

Damn they nailed him proper.

Immobilized the BP Landie, then dragged him out and shot him close range just above the eye. Like a dog.

Flip flop for life.

KoTeMoRe wrote:Damn they nailed him proper.

Immobilized the BP Landie, then dragged him out and shot him close range just above the eye. Like a dog.

Flip flop for life.

Looking at the holes in the windscreen, if he was in the front seat one of those shots could have got him. Excellent shooting btw.

It wasn't a Landie, it looked like a Shogun.

EDIT Photo added. A bullet through either hole could have done the damage to his head, depending on whether the shooter was high or low relative to the SUV.

KoTeMoRe wrote:Damn they nailed him proper.

So what's the political significance? The Houthis are more firmly in control, without those backstabbers?