While Trump Visits Saudi Arabia, Houthis Continue Attacks on Saudi Forces
Posted by James the Russian Analyst
While Saudi Arabia and its Gulf ally Qatar have been losing the Syrian proxy war since Russia’s direct intervention in autumn 2015, the disastrous Yemen conflict is a much greater drain on the Kingdom’s prestige at home and abroad. For many months, Yemeni Houthi militants and their Saleh loyalist allies have been bringing the war waged by Riyadh against their country home via ballistic missile attacks and guerrilla incursions on Saudi territory. Hours before Air Force One touched down on the tarmac in Riyadh, Houthi/Saleh forces released video that they claim shows them firing a ballistic missile against the Saudi capitol. The Saudis claimed they successfully intercepted the rocket west of Riyadh, though in the past, Patriot and other US/NATO sold Saudi anti-missile defenses have missed incoming warheads:
Over the weekend, tens of thousands protested against American and British aided Saudi aggression in the Yemeni capitol of Sa’naa, which is controlled by the Houthis and Saleh loyalists. PBS News Hour reported that the humanitarian situation in the country has grown desperate, with mass hunger and malnourishment driving a cholera outbreak. While Yemen has been dependent on food imports for decades as its population swelled, many Shi’a Yemenis view the near-famine as a deliberate Saudi policy to punish the civilian population which supports the resistance against GCC occupation.
On Sunday May 21, the pro-Shi’a Lebanese al-Sahat TV posted video footage purportedly showing Yemeni forces shooting down or damaging a Royal Saudi Air Force F-15 jet with a surface to air missile. The alleged location of the shoot down was inside the Kingdom’s Najran province, possibly targeting a jet descending to a lower altitude. The pro-Hezbollah Al-Manar TV had reported the shoot down earlier in the week. If the footage is confirmed and the Yemenis did manage to down or force the plane to crash before it could return to King Khalid Air Base, then the Saudis will likely plea for more direct American military assistance in hunting down Yemeni SAMs that pose a threat to their pilots — who’ve hitherto bombed civilians from above MANPAD range with impunity. The Houthis had previously taken credit during the two year-old war for downing Saudi Blackhawk and Apache helicopters, as well as an F-16 of the Saudi-allied GCC coalition air forces (the RSAF itself doesn’t fly F-16s). The reported F-15 downing came on the heels of numerous roadside ambushes of Saudi security forces in the border Najran and Jizan provinces.
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