Yemen: all you want (2011-2015)

[omarali50]

I know we usually avoid pictures, videos and cartoons here, but an occasional exception can be made. This is especially for Crowbat. I am told the anchor is reacting to the Saudi "Mission accomplished" announcement on Hezbollah's TV (but I have no idea if that is true or not, maybe Crowbat can tell us what TV channel this is...or if this is made-up). From the 30 second mark.
Enjoy.
https://www.facebook.com/50768097932...8/?pnref=story

[CrowBat]

Yes, Asiri was busy making a clown of himself - and that at every imaginable opportunity - for most of the last two weeks, just like the Saudi military.

Seems they're all still doing the same mistake like the US military in Vietnam, expecting that deployment of high-tech and an endless supply of ammo are solution for every problem.

One of Asiri's dumbest moments this week was when he admitted the use of CBUs in Yemen:
Saudis confess to using cluster bombs in Yemen

'The bombs referred to by human rights observers as forbidden weapons were sold to Saudi Arabia by the United States,' said Osairi, according to the CNN Arabic network, in response to a question about the use of the CBU-105 cluster bombs by the aggressor Saudis in Yemen, which was objected by a human rights observer.

He said that the question is wrongly asked as using those weapons were not illegal, since if they were, then why does the United States sell them to the regional countries?
...
Osairi also claimed that the human rights observer knows the CBU-105 bombs and that they are anti warfare weapons, just as the Saudi-led coalition knows this and does not use them against people, or cities.

Disregarding his own earlier confession to the use of cluster bombs in Yemen, the also claimed that the human rights observer's report in that respect is totally baseless!

HRW's report on this issue: Yemen: Saudi-Led Airstrikes Used Cluster Munitions

Credible evidence indicates that the Saudi-led coalition used banned cluster munitions supplied by the United States in airstrikes against Houthi forces in Yemen, Human Rights Watch said today. Cluster munitions pose long-term dangers to civilians and are prohibited by a 2008 treaty adopted by 116 countries, though not Saudi Arabia, Yemen, or the United States.

Photographs, video, and other evidence have emerged since mid-April 2015 indicating that cluster munitions have been used during recent weeks in coalition airstrikes in Yemen’s northern Saada governorate, the traditional Houthi stronghold bordering Saudi Arabia. Human Rights Watch has established through analysis of satellite imagery that the weapons appeared to land on a cultivated plateau, within 600 meters of several dozen buildings in four to six village clusters.

“Saudi-led cluster munition airstrikes have been hitting areas near villages, putting local people in danger,” said Steve Goose, arms director at Human Rights Watch. “These weapons should never be used under any circumstances. Saudi Arabia and other coalition members – and the supplier, the US – are flouting the global standard that rejects cluster munitions because of their long-term threat to civilians.”
...

Overall, this entire operation remains a comedy - though one with tragic proportions and repercussions.

[CrowBat]

...and because it's so funny... the first report about involvement of Moroccan AF F-16s in this operation is related to a loss of one of them:

Houthis Claim to Have Shot Down Missing Moroccan Military Plane

A leading member in the Shiite Houthi group said Monday that his movement had shot down a Moroccan warplane from the Saudi-led coalition while it was carrying out a raid on northern Yemen's Saada province.

"The warplane was carrying out a raid as part of the [Saudi-led coalition] aggression on Yemen, before the anti-aircraft guns shot it down," Deif al-Shami, a member of the political bureau of the Shiite group, told Anadolu Agency.

"The plane's wreckage is currently in our possession, but there are no information yet about the pilot's fate," he added.

Earlier in the day, the Moroccan army said that a Moroccan F-16 fighter jet which was at the disposal of the Saudi-led coalition in Yemen had gone missing.

The army said that the warplane went missing at 6pm local time (1700 GMT) on Sunday.

According to the statement, the pilot of another plane in the same squadron could not see if the pilot had ejected.

The release, however, did not reveal details about the location where the aircraft lost contact, but noted that an investigation had been launched into the incident.
...

The aircraft in question was F-16C Block 52, serial 08-8008. Fate of pilot remains unknown.

[davidbfpo]

From the BBC:

A Saudi-led coalition has resumed its air strikes against Yemen's rebels after the end of a ceasefire, Yemeni military officials and witnesses say.They say the strikes targeted Houthi rebel positions in the southern port of Aden after the five-day humanitarian truce expired at 20:00 GMT.
In Saudi Arabia, Yemeni political parties earlier began negotiations on how to resolve the crisis.
But Shia rebels stayed away from the talks in the capital Riyadh.

Link:http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-middle-east-32776430


Politics aside I note some recent reporting refers to the 'human crisis' in the Yemen today, such this in the BBC report:

There are currently 12 million people without access to sufficient food, clean water, fuel or basic medical care, according to the UN. As many as 300,000 have fled their homes.

C4 has a film report from Aden:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Lewe7nGXWzc

[CrowBat]

A sort of 'review' of what's going on in Yemen the last few days:

- The truce of the last week was exploited by the Houthis and allied YA units to reinforce a number of their exposed positions, and reposition some of heavy armament. Between others, they've released this video showing something like a MAZ-543 TEL for SS-1c Scud-B SSMs:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KyAKhDLEPcY

The video was taken on or around 16 or 17 May, in the Amran Province, perhaps on the road connecting Sana'a with Sa'ada.

A number of BM-21s were moved from Sana'a into Taiz area too (see below for a photo of one of them).

Furthermore, they have overrun Lawdar and then rushed a big column of troops and vehicles to reinforce their positions in Aden. This time the YA took care to secure the place too, so local separatists and Hadi-loyalists began complaining that dozens of them were detained and their houses rased to the ground (all 'by Houthis', of course). An unknown militant (most likely from the AQAP) then detonated a suicide vest near the newly-established local Houthi/YA HQ in Lawder on 17 May, reportedly killing 'dozens'. Our glorious media found the entire affair not worth reporting, of course.

The AQAP has meanwhile imposed a ban on qat in the Hadramawt Province (that's going to make it particularly popular between Yemenis... ) and is in the process of arresting dozens (meanwhile at least 200) of YA troops in and around that town, as well as in Mukalla, further south.

Whatever, such movements should've prompted the Saudis to re-launch their aerial onslaught. Primary targets of the last two days were underground storage depots around Sana'a, plus Houthi/YA positions along the border to Saudi Arabia.

Curiously, there are neither reports about new air strikes on Houthi/YA positions in Aden nor in Taiz for example, although fierce figthing in both of cities continues without any interruptions.

There is intensive diplomatic activity aimed at bringing an end to this conflict, and the UN is trying to run a conference on Yemen. Interestingly, Houthi leader (and de-facto strongman in Yemen right now), Abdul Malik al-Houthi appeared on TV for the first time in over a month. As reported here he showed interest in taking part in this conference but also went to record to state this is a 'battle against al-Qaida supported by Saudi-led air strikes'. He further announced that the YA is going to accept new recruits, i.e. expand its recruitment in order to bolster the campaign against the AQAP.

Problem is, Hadi & Co are demanding Houthis to withdraw before they would be left to participate:
UN announces Yemen talks; govt demands rebel pullout

...The United Nations announced yesterday a date for its conference on Yemen, where Saudi-led warplanes have intensified raids against rebels in a conflict that has displaced half a million people.

But Yemen’s government-in-exile swiftly demanded a pullback of the Iran-backed Shia rebels from seized territory as a precondition to joining the talks set for May 28 in Geneva.
...
UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said next week’s conference was aimed at restoring “momentum towards a Yemeni-led political transition process”.

Ban hoped the Geneva talks would “reduce the levels of violence and alleviate the intolerable humanitarian situation”.

Following the announcement, however, Foreign Minister Riyadh Yassin said the Hadi government had yet to receive an official invitation. But even if it was invited, Yassin said the government would not attend without some implementation of UN Security Council Resolution 2216 as a sign of “goodwill”.

The April resolution imposed an arms embargo on the rebels and demanded they relinquish territory they seized since descending from their stronghold in the mountains of northern Yemen last year.

“We will not attend if there is no implementation, at least part of it. If there is no withdrawal from Aden at least, or Taez,” Yassin told AFP.
...

In the light of reports like this one by Vice News, guess that citizens of Sana'a would be outright delighted to get Hadi into their hands:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JoV9Z6NXH5I

Oh and... it transpires the Saudi-led coalition has not only lost that Moroccan F-16C Block 52, on 10 May (body of its pilot, Lt Yassine Bathi, was meanwhile returned by Houthis to Morocco), but also a RSGF AH-64 Apache helicopter gunship, shot down over northern Yemen on the same day:
Moroccan and Saudi aircraft shot down in Yemen

A Moroccan F-16 and a Saudi AH-64 Apache have been shot down while operating over Yemen yesterday. It is understood that the Moroccan Air Force pilot was killed but the two crew of the Saudi aircraft have been captured by rebel forces.
...

The downed helo can be seen on the video here:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x5DJKP7GqHo

Curiously, Saudi Spokesman Brig Gen Asiri didn't comment on this with even a single word...

[AdamG]

Tangential thought - if the rebels are upping the ante with this SCUD, what's next? A non-HE warhead?

Saudi Arabia said it shot down a Scud missile fired by Yemen's Houthi rebels and their allies early Saturday at a Saudi city that is home to a large air base, marking a major escalation in the months-long war.

Two missiles launched from a Patriot missile battery shot down the Scud around 2:45 a.m. Saturday local time around the southwestern city of Khamis Mushait, the official Saudi Press Agency reported.

The agency did not report any casualties in the attack, which marked the first use of a Cold War-era Scud by the rebels since Saudi-led airstrikes began in March.

Khamis Mushait is home to the King Khalid Air Base, the largest such facility in that part of the country. Saudis on social media reported hearing air raid sirens go off around the city during the attack.

The agency blamed the Shia Houthi rebels and their allies loyal to former Yemeni President Ali Abdullah Saleh. Yemen's state news agency SABA, now controlled by the Houthis, said the rebels and their allies fired the Scud.

http://america.aljazeera.com/article...d-missile.html

[mirhond]

Saudis in a deep Shia now.

[CrowBat]

A number of clashes occurred along the border between Saudi Arabia and Yemen, the last few days, as Houthis and YA's special forces are frequently driving motorcicle-mounted RPG/ATGM-teams into Saudi Arabia.

Bellow a sequence of videos showing their attack on 'ash-Shafrah Military Compound' outside Najran, where they encountered a number of LAV-IIIs of the Royal Saudi National Guard. At least two of these were destroyed - apparently by Metis ATGMs and something like RPG-29s...

Since 6 June, the YA has fired four Scuds into Saudi Arabia so far, all apparently targeting Khamis Mushayt AB (3 of these during the first attack). One was shot down by two PAC-2s, others fell well outside any 'interesting' areas.

[CrowBat]

Few 'additional details' in this regards:

- The SS-1c Scud-B missiles in question are operated by the Yemeni Army, not by Hothis; that is: by units of the Yemeni Army that sided with Houthis.

- Three Scuds were fired at Khamis Mushyat during that first attack, although it's unclear whether they were fired simultaneously, or something like 'during that night'; two fell well away from defended areas, one was shot down by the PAC-2 site protecting the local air base.

- Another, meanwhile fourth, Scud attack was reported on 9 June.

- Meanwhile, there are reports about movement of YA's SS-21 TELs in direction of the Saudi border, i.e. that at least some of these have survived the aerial onslaught and might be brought into action.

- Yemeni Army surely does not operate any kind of WMDs, otherwise Riyahd would be running a bigger PR-campaign than Bush admin did in regards of Iraqi WMDs, back in 2002.

[CrowBat]

...to make things 'better': meanwhile it became known that the C-in-C RSAF, Gen Mohammad Ahmad ash-Shi'lan passed away on 10 June...

...there are already rumours it was a heart-attack during one of attacks on Khamis...

[davidbfpo]

Iona Craig is a respected journalist, who has lived in Yemen for four years till December 2014 and has a fascinating report having been in Aden:http://america.aljazeera.com/article...e-houthis.html

Tasters:

....the reality on the ground does not reflect the depiction and rhetoric coming from Yemen’s far-off leaders and their foreign backers in Riyadh.....Not only has the Saudi-led aerial campaign that began on March 26 failed to push back the Houthis as intended, but it has also been unable to prevent the group's continued expansion in a conflict that is now being fought on at least six fronts across the country.

[CrowBat]

Saba News says:

The Yemeni army forces launched on Monday a scud missile against the Saudi Al-Salsabil military base in Wadi Al-Dawasir in Riyadh.

Spokesperson of the army forces brigadier Sharaf Luqman said in a statement to Saba that the missile hit its target precisely.

The scud missile comes as a reaction to the Saudi aggression and its sorties against the country, Luqman said.

“Despite we have warned by targeting Khalid bin Abdul-Aziz airbase in Khamis Mushait as a message to the aggression states, topped by Saudi Arabia, in order to stop attacks and injustice against the Yemeni people,” Luqam said to Saba.

He affirmed that the launching of this missile is another message to the aggression states so as to understand the lesson or otherwise we have many such surprises in the days to come.

[davidbfpo]

A short article by Gregory Johnsen, a SME (now out of the Yemen) and now with BuzzFeed:http://www.buzzfeed.com/gregorydjohn...qae#.hoRdkyymv

A grim concluding passage:

The challenge from ISIS may force AQAP to abandon the slow-moving, support-building project it has undertaken in recent years in favor of more frequent attacks. In the battle for the heart of the jihadi movement, as the apocalyptic wars in Iraq and Syria have shown, the most violent group usually wins.

[CrowBat]

Plenty of food for thoughts here:
Today’s Civilian Victims in Yemen Will be Ignored Because U.S. and its Allies Are Responsible

...Because these deaths of innocents are at the hands of the U.S. government and its despotic allies, it is very predictable how they will be covered in the U.S. None of the victims will be profiled in American media; it’ll be very surprising if any of their names are even mentioned. No major American television outlet will interview their grieving families. Americans will never learn about their extinguished life aspirations, or the children turned into orphans, or the parents who will now bury their infants. There will be no #FayoushStrong Twitter hashtags trending in the U.S. It’ll be like it never happened: blissful ignorance.

This is the pattern that repeats itself over and over. Just see the stone-cold media silence when President Obama, weeks after winning the Nobel Peace Prize, ordered a cruise missile strike in Yemen, complete with cluster bombs, which ended the lives of 35 women and children, none of whose humanity was acknowledged in virtually any Western media reports.
...
All of that stands in the starkest contrast to the intense victim focus whenever an American or Westerner is killed by an individual Muslim. Indeed, Americans just spent the last week inundated with melodramatic “warnings” from the U.S. government — mindlessly amplified as always by their media — that they faced serious terror on their most sacred day from ISIS monsters: a “threat” that, as usual, proved to be nonexistent.

This media imbalance is a vital propaganda tool. In U.S. media land, Americans are always the victims of violence and terrorism, always menaced and threatened by violent Muslim savages, always targeted for no reason whatsoever other than primitive Islamic barbarism. That mythology is sustained by literally disappearing America’s own victims, pretending they don’t exist, denying their importance through the casual invocation of clichés we’ve been trained to spout (collateral damage) and, most importantly of all, never humanizing them under any circumstances.

This is how the American self-perception as perpetual victim of terrorism, but never its perpetrator, is sustained. It’s also what fuels the belief that They are propagandized but We aren’t.
...

Except for about 5,000 killed Yemeni civilians meanwhile (that's the figure according to the MOD in Sana'a, not the government in exile or the UN), what's also not reported are all the Saudi causalties caused in multiple clashes along the border. These are primarily related to crews of their M60 and AMX-30 MBTs hit during ATGM-attacks by Houthis and Yemeni Army special forces (one of RSNG AMX-30s was even captured intact, about a week ago).

Some of 'classics' can be seen in videos like these:

http://www.liveleak.com/view?i=f7d_1435414670

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D71UBLrSepo

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BGaQU6Vf4bg

...and a particularly spectacular example can be seen here (apparently showing a Metis-M going all the way through the turret of a M60 - which is: in, and out on the other side):
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gYerF_51wOw

[CrowBat]

So....

- Two weeks ago, Houthis issued a decree with which all the Saleh's allies were removed from their government in Sana'a.

- Immediately afterwards, all the YA troops that sided with Houthis were withdrawn: from Aden, from the border to Saudi Arabia and few other places.

- 'Surprise, surprise': ever since we do not get to see all the possible sorts of videos of knocked-out Saudi tanks...

- even more so: we now see MRAPs operated by Emirati special forces driving down the streets of Aden, 80% of which should be in hands of 'loyalist' forces.

- Emiratis then de-facto admit they have 'boots on the ground in Yemen' (at least indirectly, through admitting a casualty there, see:
UAE Confirms Two Officers Killed in Yemen)

- though nobody there is ready to admit that half the 'loyalists' in Aden are either al-Qaida or Daesh, and the other half actually Separatists, i.e. people who want the return of an independent South Yemen.

The sole exception is the WSJ, which is meanwhile discovering some 'hot water' about this conflict - though not without faithfully sticking to 'pro-Iranian' legend about Houthis too: al-Qaida Fights on Same Side as Saudi-Backed Militias in Yemen

...Local militias backed by Saudi Arabia, special forces from the United Arab Emirates and al Qaeda militants all fought on the same side this week to wrest back control over most of Yemen’s second city, Aden, from pro-Iranian Houthi rebels, according to local residents and Houthi forces....

- Even then, one has to correct the WSJ, then it was the Daesh that held a victory parade in Aden, as can be seen... well, approximately at this link:
https://pbs.twimg.com/ext_tw_video_t...gsEXeZv5jX.jpg

Somehow sad to see even the last stronghold of decent journalism succumbing to sensationalism and nonsense...

...and while everybody is looking to Aden and wondering how comes that 80% of that city 'turned Saudi in a matter of one day' (I'm sarcastic again, of course), local reports cite reports 136 Saudi-led air strikes against Houthis and YA troops inside that city in a matter of the last 36 hours.

Another 6 on Sana'a too: 4 apartment houses flattened, 31 killed, 24 injured.

Makes me wonder: exactly how much of the aid they're promising to Yemen are Saudis & Co calculating in expenses for PGMs they're dropping on that country..?

[davidbfpo]

Bruce Reidel of Brookings has a short commentary and he ends with:

The Aden victory will encourage the Saudi political leadership to continue the war. King Salman has staked his prestige on dealing the Houthis, Saleh and Iran a defeat in Yemen. The war has produced a wave of nationalist enthusiasm in the Kingdom behind the royal family.
But the south has never been the stronghold of the Houthis or Saleh. They are regarded as outsiders there. If the war moves north the Houthis will be closer to their power base. The war fundamentally remains a stalemate with an enormous cost for the Yemeni people.

Link:http://www.brookings.edu/blogs/marka...01US0001-07171

[davidbfpo]

I am never convinced such maps (as below) tell the "ground truth", they can help show complexity and nowheere better than the Yemen.

Taken from a short BBC News summary:http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-middle-east-33586062

[CrowBat]

...related to such maps is one of biggest ironies of this war: in all of the reporting about what's going on in Yemen, absolutely nobody says a single word about anybody there doing something against the AQAP and the Daesh.

...that is: nobody except Houthis:
Ansarullah Kills ISIL Commander in Western Sana'a, Yemen

A senior Ansarullah commander announced that the revolutionary movement has killed a senior ISIL commander in in heavy clashes in the capital of Sana'a on Monday.

"Abu Omar al-Shami was killed in the Western parts of Sana'a," Oday Movafaq said on Monday.

He noted that in another operation Abu Farouq, a senior commander of pro-Hadi militants, was also killed.

Last month, Yemen's popular Ansarullah fighters captured a number of fugitive Al-Qaeda terrorists who were fleeing Ma'rib province.

The captured terrorists had fled their military bases in Al-Bayanat, Al-Jawf and Al-Sahil in Ma'rib province.

They were arrested by the Yemeni revolutionary forces on Ma'rib-Sana'a road.
...

[CrowBat]

The Saudis are meanwhile completely out of control...
Yemen: Coalition Strikes on Residence Apparent War Crime

Saudi-led coalition airstrikes that killed at least 65 civilians, including 10 children, and wounded dozens in the Yemeni port city of Mokha on July 24, 2015, are an apparent war crime. Starting between 9:30 and 10 p.m., coalition airplanes repeatedly struck two residential compounds of the Mokha Steam Power Plant, which housed plant workers and their family members.

The failure of Saudi Arabia and other coalition members to investigate apparently unlawful airstrikes in Yemen demonstrates the need for the United Nations Human Rights Council to create a commission of inquiry to investigate allegations of laws-of-war violations by the coalition, the Houthis, and other parties to the conflict, Human Rights Watch said.
...
“The Saudi-led coalition repeatedly bombed company housing with fatal results for several dozen civilians,” said Ole Solvang, senior emergencies researcher. “With no evident military target, this attack appears to be a war crime.”

Human Rights Watch visited the area of the attack a day-and-a-half later. Craters and building damage showed that six bombs had struck the plant’s main residential compound, which housed at least 200 families, according to the plant’s managers. One bomb had struck a separate compound for short-term workers about a kilometer north of the main compound, destroying the water tank for the compounds, and two bombs had struck the beach and an intersection nearby.
...
Bombs hit two apartment buildings directly, collapsing part of their roofs. Other bombs exploded between the buildings, including in the main courtyard, stripping the exterior walls off dozens of apartments, leaving only the load-bearing pillars standing.

Workers and residents at the compounds told Human Rights Watch that one or more aircraft dropped nine bombs in separate sorties in intervals of a few minutes. All of the bombs appeared intended for the compounds and not another objective.

Human Rights Watch saw no signs that either of the two residential compounds for the power plants were being used for military purposes. Over a dozen workers and residents said that there had been no Houthi or other military forces at the compounds. The power plant and the compound were built in 1986.

Early in the morning of July 25, a news ticker on Al-Arabiya TV, a Saudi-owned media outlet, reported that coalition forces had attacked a military air defense base in Mokha. Human Rights Watch identified a military facility about 800 meters southeast of the Mokha Steam Power Plant’s main compound, which plant workers said had been a military air defense base. The plant workers said that it had been empty for months, and Human Rights Watch saw no activity or personnel at the base from the outside, except for two guards.
...
“Again and again, we see coalition airstrikes killing large numbers of civilians, but no signs of any investigation into possible violations,” Solvang said. “If coalition members won’t investigate, the UN should.”

Of course, US and (allied) Arab media are completely ignorant of such reports. All that matters is how much is the Saudi-led coalition 'beating Iranian-supported Houthis'. Because of that, it doesn't matter if the Saudis are not sticking even to their own cease-fire and continue bombing wide and far over Yemen.

During the night from Sunday to Monday, they've flown three air strikes against targets in Sabr area; several against Jaawala (northern Aden); several against targets in Lahj Province (including al-Anab AB); at least one against Ma'arib (east of Sana'a), etc.

...and they are not only bombing civilians: in Lahj, they killed 12 combatants from the pro-government forces, and injured 30: :roll:

The Arab coalition has launched new air strikes in at least two Yemeni provinces amid a humanitarian pause that started at midnight the previous day, according to security officials.

Two of Monday’s air strikes killed 15 fighters allied with the coalition in the province of Lahij, security officials and field commanders said.

More than 40 fighters were also wounded in the apparent “friendly fire” incident, they said, adding that the death toll was expected to rise.

The strikes occurred near the strategic military base of al-Anad, which is held by Houthis, and which was also hit by coalition jets on Monday.

The coalition also struck north of the port city of Aden.
...

...the only 'good' thing about this 'incident' is: most of those killed were from the AQAP - by pure accident, of course...

A military source affirmed on Tuesday that 10 al-Qaeda and pro-Saudi aggression members were killed and more than 40 others injured.

In a statement to Saba, the source said that the army and popular committees carried out military operations destroying 5 armored vehicles and also caused big losses in lives and materials while al-Qaeda and pro-Saudi aggression members were trying to infiltrate into Dar Sa’ad area in Aden.

It noted that the Saudi aggression has launched more than 50 sorties against Dar Sa’ad and Al-Arish areas in Aden.

... of course, hardly a word about this all in the Western media (except for WT): makes one wonder if Oblabla might find it worth a word or two when back from Africa - or is it so that such 'unimportant developments' are not worth attention of a Nobel Prize laureate...

[CrowBat]

Two interesting reports about certain 'details' of the war in Yemen have been published in the last few days.

Firstly:
Scud missiles fired into Saudi Arabia from Yemen traced to N.Korea: official

Scud missiles fired into Saudi Arabia by Yemeni rebels in recent months came from North Korea, a South Korean intelligence official said Wednesday, in the latest case that illustrated North Korea's support for the weapons programs of some countries in the Middle East.

Saudi Arabia has shot down about 40 percent of some 20 Scud missiles fired by Yemen's Houthi rebels, said the official, who is familiar with the issue.

He did not give further details on how South Korea reached the conclusion that the missiles originated from North Korea. He spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak to media.

Missile exports have long been a major source of hard currency for North Korea.

"North Korea has sold missiles to Yemen and sent missile engineers to that country in the 1990s," said a former North Korean official, who was in a position to know about the arms deals.

Another former North Korean intelligence official in Seoul said North Korea sold many Scud missiles to countries in the Middle East, noting Egypt was the hub of North Korea's arms trade in the region.

The two former North Korean officials, who later defected to South Korea, asked not to be identified, citing the issue's sensitivity.
...

'Some 20 Scuds fired...into Saudi Arabia'... Now, all that was reported in the media were 4-6 firings. This is the first report about five times more 'Scuds' being fired.... So, if the YA managed to fire up to 20 (or more?), and this was not reported, then we can draw some quite useful conclusions about how much on this war is never reported at all (plus understand why are there now rumours that Saudi Arabia is demanding PAC-3s from the USA).

And then, wasn't it that Saudis said that the primary objective of the Operation Decisive Storm is to 'destroy the threat from ballistic missiles and heavy weapons "captured by Houthis"'? At least it happens I recall that Maj Gen Assiri explained on 21 April 2015, that Decisive Storm had been accomplished because such were destroyed. But then, the Houthis began firing Scuds against Saudi Arabia on 6 June...

...ah well, never mind...

Secondly, The Rolling Stone distinguished itself by filling the first report by a Western journo from central and northern Yemen in quite some time.

This 'must read' is concluding in following fashion:

...Yemen's Byzantine, fractious politics seem to confound even experienced observers. And yet, looking at what has already happened in Libya, Iraq and Syria, there seemed to be a precedent. Yemen's war will intensify. Rival sides will splinter into even smaller, more brutal militias. Regional powers will pour fuel on the fire in the pursuit of their own rivalries and domestic agendas, despite the risk of blowback. The international community will stand by helplessly. A massive human tragedy will unfold, shattering millions of lives and sending refugees into teeming camps and to the shores of an unwelcoming West. And a succession of increasingly nihilistic jihadist groups, the war's only winners, will thrive and pose a grave threat to the world.

"The world hasn't learned anything from the Syrian experience," Faqih, the human rights activist, tells me. "What's happening in Yemen is creating an environment that encourages jihadist groups. They have been dreaming of this day."
...

"The Saudis, as well as Al Qaeda and ISIS — it's all the same," he says, his face made gaunt by the beam of a flashlight. "We're expecting that there will be more".