ASM Alley
Houthi rebels fired two more cruise missiles at the guided-missile destroyer USS Mason (DDG-87) on Wednesday and Pentagon officials are pledging a response.
https://news.usni.org/2016/10/12/pen...ss-mason-yemen
It sound good.But who is in command?
Pentagon? CNO? CinC CENT?
No,it is POTUS.
BREAKING: U.S. launches strikes in Yemen after missiles aimed at American ships twice this week
http://nbcnews.to/2dNJhRn
Missiles were at onshore radar stations that were involved in the missiles being fired at the US destroyer.
Again back to the recent KSA attack on a funeral.....STILL no photos of civilians ie women and children normally associated to a Muslim funeral....ALL killed and or wounded were military aged men and almost all were military either from Saleh and or the Houthi's....
NOTICE after a sharp rebuke by the US of KSA for the air strike the US has gone extremely silent in their comments when the depth of the number of Generals and COLs....killed or wounded became known....
This was not your "normal funeral".....
From my POV, this is a complete madness - but then perfectly in line with all the idiotic foreign policy decisions of the POTUS and the Pentagon in recent years.Originally Posted by Dishonesty
In essence, they're behaving like small kids, playing with (billion-dollar) toys - and the situation can easily escalate.
Namely, the US military MUST KNOW what's going on in Yemen. It had its troops present there until March last year, and its intel services are following the situation ever since. If they don't know exactly who-is-who there, they should all get fired at the spot (and court-martialled too).
They know the Houthi/Saleh alliance very much has a strong central military authority. They know this alliance has its own Minister of Defence, its own commanders of Military Regions. Most of brigade-commanders that sided with Houthis/Ansar Allah are still in command (as far as not KIA meanwhile, of course). They (the US intel) knows the Houthi/Saleh alliance took over 60% of the Yemen Army, nearly 95% of the Yemen Air Force, 100% of the Special Forces Command, 100% of the Missile Forces Command, 100% of the Presidential Protection Force, about 70% of the Yemen Navy as these were as of March 2015. They know these have taken over the command and control of all of these too. Considering they are successfully resisting the onslaught of the Saudi-led military alliance since 18 months means that they (Houthi/Saleh alliance) have a (very much!) functioning chain of command.
Furthermore, they must know that the Houthi ideology is including a strong anti-US, anti-Israel, and anti-Saudi stance. Saleh's ideology is similar: back in 1990, he was supportive of Iraq, and very much anti-US. This didn't change that much until he was removed in 2011. Lately, he has repeatedly requested help from his old ally - Moscow. So, no surprise if - in essence - they all (Houthi/Saleh) see themselves at war with some sort of US-supported, 'Saudi-Zionist' invasion (just citing their own statements). This means that from their POV, the USA was 'always involved in aggression on Yemen' (i.e. on the side of the Saudi-led alliance bombing 'Hothis'), regardless if directly or indirectly. And, hand at heart, this is correct too - although the USA have so far never fired at 'Hothis' as such.
This means that on strategic plan, attacks on USN warships are nothing that could be assigned to some sort of 'weak central military authority' or 'regional commanders seeking martial prowess'. However, the US intel and military MUST know too, that these attacks can take place only within a limited zone along the western coast of Yemen (the part of that coast in the Red Sea): they are anything but 'endangering international shipping in the Bad al-Mandeb Strait'.
Another aspect is rather 'tactical' by nature: coast-based surface-search radars used by the Houthi/Saleh alliance are not the best available. And even if, they have no means of positively identifying what are they trying to attack with anti-ship missiles. In essence: they are targeting 'radar blips' on their displays, whatever these are.
If the blip on the other side turns out to be a USN warship... well, it's not the Houthi/Saleh to blame.
And versa-vice: the USN very much knows what is on the other side. Thanks to far superior means of intelligence gathering and insight into who-is-who on the other side, it has far superior situational awareness. It knows what the Saudi-led alliance is actually doing in Saudi Arabia, too. And it is still sending its ships into the harm's way.
Bottom line: a 'blip' enters the range of surface search radars operated by Houthi/Saleh coalition; their local commanders are authorised to open fire; they fire. That's all.
So, why then send USN warships there and steer in the literal 'hornet's next'? What's the purpose of such an action?
...except with the purpose of a provocation?
This is idiotic foreign policy 1st class, nothing else, and the only idiot responsible for it is Oblabla: he has ordered USN warships into the combat zone, and it is him who is as stupid as to oversee that what he has ordered could easily turn into another Tonking Gulf Incident.
Moderator at work
I have merged the small thread on a UAE ship hit by a Houthi SSM, which had 1321 views, into the main thread. Accordingly those posts are no longer in sequence, but it is clear what they are
The consequences of the SSM strike are now being played out way beyond that piece of sea and rock.
davidbfpo
What next?
The BBC report cruise missiles fired from USN ship(s) at land targets, radar stations:Link:http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-middle-east-37639565It marks the first time the US has fired at rebel targets since the start of the Yemen conflict in March 2015.
The Soufan Group have a longer commentary:http://soufangroup.com/tsg-intelbrie...back-in-yemen/
I do wonder if the Houthi's and allies knew the radar blips were USN ships, knowing firing at USN ships surely would be unwise.
davidbfpo
Let's clearly define one thing: 'Houthis' is used for the group that's naming itself the 'Ansar Allah'. A Zaidi Shi'a religious militant group of about 20,000, coming from north-western Yemen.
Their 'hard core' is meanwhile quite well-organized (into two 'battalions', that are including some armour and heavy weapons), but has absolutely no clue about such things like 'radars' and even less so about 'guided missiles'.
Units operating anti-ship missiles used for these strikes are those of the Yemeni Navy, about 50% of which sided with Houthis. That's so because officers and sailors in question are predominantly Zaidi Shi'a too, or loyalists to former president Saleh (himself a Zaidi Shi'a, and confirmed two times through free elections in that position, contrary to certain 'internationally recognized' president Hadi).
So, the Yemeni Navy people in question have taken C.801s 'left over' from Chinese-supplied Type-021 fast missile craft, and adapted them for operations from the coast.
I've got no clue what kind of radar are they using for obtaining targeting intelligence, but I doubt it's any kind of a type with an integrated IFF-system. Which means that they have no clue what are they shooting at: they're shooting at 'blips' on their radar displays.
When considering this, one should keep in mind that the Yemeni coast is under a sea blockade declared by the Saudi-led coalition since March 2015. Everybody knows this, and this means: nobody is as crazy as to move any kind of bigger vessels close to that coast - except Saudis and their allies. So much about Yemeni 'IFF' (validity of which is confirmed alone by the fact that so far they did not launch a single attack on any kind of '3rd party', 'neutral' vessels, especially none of so many merchants passing by).
Sounds familiar? This is #Yemen, not #Donbas. The "#Houthi rebels" now have anti-ship cruise missiles & "radar sites". All from hunting shop located just around the corner......
JUST as the "miners and truck drivers" in Donbas suddenly were producing 700 Russian tanks of the T72/80 variety, drove over 1200 IFVs and were able to man over 1000 pieces of artillery and MLRSs......
Yemen is just another facet in the Iranian/KSA conflict or better stated Sunni/Shia hegemony of the Muslim global community which started under Khomeini and continues under Khamenei......while there is no common Shia/Sunni border in Syria to KSA...THERE is one between Yemen and KSA....
AND there has been continuous Iranian attempts to rile up the Shia minority inside KSA....along with IS which has Iranian backing as well...
Map of #Saudi, #UAE, & insurgent spheres of influence inside #Yemen, via @nytimes & @AEIfdp:
http://www.nytimes.com/2016/10/14/wo...mtyp=cur&_r=0#
…
But that's the particularly absurd part of this conflict: namely, the never-ending report about 'Iran-supported Houthis', and 'Iranian arms deliveries to Houthis'.
What support? What arms?
The USN, Saudis, Emiratis, Egyptians etc. are running a de-facto sea blockade of Yemen since SEVEN YEARS. Yes, seven years - and not only since March 2015.
In this time - and I cross-checked this only this very morning - they have intercepted exactly THREE (in digits: 3) dhows carrying 'illicit arms', means small ships carrying AK-47s, RPGs, some C-4, and few MANPADs and ATGMs etc. for which they say were underway from Iran with destination 'Ansar Allah', aka 'Houthis'.
Now comes the best part: please read the report here - How False Stories of Iran Arming the Houthis Were Used to Justify War in Yemen - check the links it contains, see the evidence.
It seems that the first two dhows in question (the third, intercepted in March of this year was not included in that report) were Yemeni, crewed by Yemenis, and carrying arms bound for Somalia.
...and when I think back of the first Houthi-Saudi clash, that in 2009-2010, and how many Yemeni arms traders Saleh's authorities (which were fighting Houthis at the time) have arrested because they were selling shiploads of arms to Houthis...
Come on: Yemen is stuffed full of arms already since 1970s. Houthis need none. On the contrary, they repeatedly called, i.e. 'warned' Tehran to stay out of this conflict, and not to meddle.
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