The Houthi-Saleh Alliance’s missile units have launched an attack on the Saudi-led coalition’s forces, deployed in the southeastern province of Taiz, killing at least 150 Saudi soldiers and destroying ten their military vehicles.
Photo: Reuters
The Saudi-led coalition’s forces, deployed in Sha’ab al-Jin near Bab al-Mandeb region in the southeastern province of Taiz, were targeted by the Houthi-Saleh alliance’s missile units, the Fars news agency reported on Thursday, citing unnamed sources. As a result, at least 150 Saudi fighters were killed, while ten their military vehicles were destroyed.
According to the sources, fighters, who were recently transported by a Turkish plane to the port city of Aden, located 170 km from the Bab al-Mandeb strait, also were among killed Saudi soldiers. The Saudi contingent arrived to the strategic region just two days ago, apparently, in order to conduct a major assault on the Houthi-Saleh Alliance’s forces.
On Saturday, Yemeni security sources said that al-Qaeda terrorists were transported from the Syrian northern city of Aleppo to Aden by the Turkish plane, which also evacuated wounded pro-Saudi fighters to medical treatment centers, located outside the country.
“The Turkish airplane landed at the Aden International Airport to transport pro-Saudi mercenaries, wounded in the Yemeni forces’ offensives in Taiz province, for treatment in Turkish hospitals,” the al-Ahd news website quoted the unnamed sources.
The sources also noted that about 150 al-Qaeda terrorists got off the plane after its landing, adding that they were transported to Aden from Syrian Aleppo.
You should be more carefull about your information. No doubt the Houthis gain some ground and the Saudis face a hard time, but to say they lost 150 soldiers is grotesque. The Iranians have many qualities but their information is completely flawed.
The reports from many anti-government sources are reporting this, Pampi Ta, not just Fars. Both sides exaggerate and everyone here understands that. The pro-government reporting is no better. Given that, exactly how does SouthFront ‘be more carefull’ about Yemeni war information? Report nothing until western MSM blesses the information as real? I trust SouthFront more than I trust Reuters.
I have no idea if 150 Saudi soldiers were killed or injured or if only five were, but consider the situation: Houthis are launching Tochkas or something similar at the Saudi military encapments or massed troops in Taiz. Even in hard soil, a Tochka can make a crater three meters deep and twenty meters wide. If they hit a group of soldiers preparing a convoy of trucks, then they could very well have taken out 10 vehicles and killed/injured 150 soldiers with one missile. These are not Scuds but something far more accurate.
The Saudis have since launched a pretty significant set of airstrikes in direct response (according to Saudi news sources) to the Houthi missile strike, so they’re clearly pissed about something.
Both sides are jockeying for position in Taiz and on the coast. The Saudis are getting closer to Mocha, and the Houthis are getting closer to the coast around al Mandeb. Both sides are going to lose a hell of a lot more than 150 soldiers when this is over.
Your right about reports from both sides being suspect. I was surprised to learn that North Yemen makes some of their own missiles. No doubt with support from outside, but their quality may be a problem. I assume that N Yemen is under naval blockade, and can not import much of anything. If ballistic missile is launched at short range does it add unspent fuel to explosion, much greater than the effect of warhead? Houthi’s may have aid in targeting from others.
No, PZIV. A ballistic missile’s motor only runs for tens of seconds if that and it’s trajectory is always a high arc. The motor is spent by time it starts falling – it only steers itself during the descent.
If you want to hit something a half-kilometer away, a ballistic missile will still have to climb to a few kilometers or whatever first, then drop. You can’t fire them in a flat or low trajectory like a cruise missile.
For most military missiles that do burn all the way to the target (like a TOW or other ATGM), the rocket fuel doesn’t add much at impact besides fireworks. The warhead is far more powerful. The exception might be some of the larger cruise missiles or an air-to-air missile, but I doubt that the fuel adds much more than a nice fireball at impact.
Houthis (or their ex-Yemeni military allies) don’t really need outside help in targeting. The missiles probably have inertial (internal) guidance. You just need good coordinates for the launch location and the target. Anyone with enough training to launch one of those things knows how to set up a fire plan and knows how to get good target coordinates off of a map.
So the target info may be just a phone call away :D
I agree with your assessment except that there is no antigovernment forces. The legitimate government of Yemen, its military, and the houthi are fighting against a saudi invasion backed by like minded extremists who want to put hadi on a throne in Yemen so he can return to serving the saudi regime and helping wahabist ideology grow in Yemen. That’s how I see it from what I have read so far on the situation in Yemen.
http://www.longwarjournal.org/archives/2016/08/analysis-irgc-implicated-in-arming-yemeni-houthis-with-missiles.php