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Meanwhile, In Yemen


JasonJ

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Saudi Arabia and "coalition of regional countries" have started air bombardment of Houthi rebels. What do you want to be bet that US will come out against this "destabilizing" development and urge everybody to "refrain from actions" that prejudice "peaceful settlement" of Yemeni civil war?

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DUBAI — Saudi Arabia is contributing 100 warplanes and 150,000 soldiers to the military operation in Yemen, al-Arabiya television reported on Thursday.

 

Planes from Egypt, Morocco, Jordan, Sudan, Kuwait, the United Arab Emirates, Qatar and Bahrain are also taking part in the operation, it said. Egypt, Pakistan, Jordan and Sudan are ready to participate in a ground offensive, the broadcaster said.

I can't believe that 150,000 figure is right. That's the entirety of SA land forces, SANG included.

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What do you want to be bet that US will come out

against this "destabilizing" development and urge

everybody to "refrain from actions" that prejudice

"peaceful settlement" of Yemeni civil war?

This is Saudi Arabia attacking someone, not Israel defending itself. I don't even expect much attention.

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U.S. Rescues Saudi Pilots from Crashed Fighter Jet

 

Two airmen rescued from Gulf of Aden after F-15 went down

 

By Julian E. Barnes
Updated March 27, 2015 9:17 p.m. ET

 

WASHINGTON—The U.S. rescued two Saudi Arabian airmen from the Gulf of Aden after their two-seater F-15 fighter jet crashed Thursday, a U.S. defense official said Friday.

 

The jet appears to have been taking part in operations over Yemen, however, the defense official wouldn’t say why the airmen ejected from the F-15 or why the plane went down over international waters.

 

Saudi Arabia requested assistance on Thursday afternoon Washington time from the U.S. after the airmen ejected from their plane, the official said.

 

An HH-60 helicopter flying from Djibouti, where the U.S. maintains a major regional base, recovered the two Saudi airmen at approximately 5:20 p.m. ET on Thursday. The recovery operation took about two hours from the time of notification to the rescue of the airmen, the defense official said.

 

The rescue operation, the official said, was coordinated by the USS Sterett, a destroyer operating in the region. The USS New York was also involved in the rescue, the official said.

 

The defense official said the two airmen were ambulatory after they recovered, but referred further questions to the Saudi government.

 

The request for assistance, the official said, was handled on the tactical level, not requiring contacts at high levels between the two governments. Military planners in the region took the call for emergency assistance and contacted the USS Sterett, which began the hunt for the pilots and called in the HH-60 from Djibouti

 

“It’s a great example of the logistical assistance we are providing,” said the U.S. official. The rescued airmen were initially taken back to the U.S. base in Djibouti, officials said.

 

The Saudi plane wasn’t shot down by enemy fire, the official said. While a mechanical problem is suspected, an investigation continues, the official said.

 

Saudi officials in Washington didn’t respond to a request for comment.

 

Also Friday, President Barack Obama spoke by phone with Saudi Arabia’s King Salman bin Abdulaziz. Mr. Obama expressed appreciation for the Saudi efforts. The White House said the two leaders also agreed there was no military solution to the Yemeni crisis and urged talks.

 

http://www.wsj.com/articles/u-s-rescues-saudi-pilots-from-crashed-fighter-jet-1427502224

 

As an aside, a particular example of clueless journalism:

 

US rescues 2 Saudi pilots in Yemen campaign

Published March 27, 2015 FoxNews.com

 

The U.S. military rescued two Saudi pilots Thursday when they ejected over the Gulf of Aden during combat operations against Houthi rebels in Yemen, the U.S. Central Command said.

 

The two airmen ejected from their F-15 and were rescued around 5:20 p.m. ET in international waters by a HH-60 helicopter, a U.S. defense official said Friday.

 

The USS Sterett, USS New York and USS Djibouti participated in the operation, the official said.

 

[...]

 

http://www.foxnews.com/world/2015/03/27/us-rescues-2-saudi-pilots-in-yemen-campaign/

Edited by BansheeOne
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the economist:

War in Yemen

Riyadh enters the fray

Saudi Arabia starts bombing its southern neighbour

Mar 28th 2015 | DUBAI

 

SAUDI ARABIA was only going to tolerate the advances of the Iranian-backed Houthi rebels for so long. Early on the morning of March 26th the kingdom said it had started a military operation in neighbouring Yemen to push back the Houthis and reinstate the legitimate government of President Abd Rabbo Mansour Hadi.

The first air strikes hit Houthi positions in Sanaa, the Yemeni capital, including the airport and the groups political headquarters. They also targeted military bases controlled by loyalists of Ali Abdullah Saleh, Yemens former president, who was ousted in 2011 and has been backing the Houthis, a Shia militia that occupied Sanaa in September and has rapidly taken over swathes of the country.

 

Adel al-Jubeir, the Saudi ambassador to America, says the strikes are the opening salvo in a campaign involving ten countriesmainly Gulf states as well as Jordan and Egypt. America said it was providing logistical and intelligence support.

 

The Saudi-led intervention comes after an advance by forces loyal to Houthis and Mr Saleh towards Aden, a strategic southern port to which Mr Hadi had fled earlier this year after the fall of the capital. The Houthi advance worries Saudi Arabia because the militiamen are backed by Iran, its main strategic rival for influence in the region (see article). As the Houthis have moved south, so Irans support for them has increased. Tehran recently announced twice-daily flights to Sanaa and said it will supply Yemen with oil.

When the Houthis advanced, taking an important military installation 60km (35 miles) northwest of Aden, Mr Hadi was rumoured to have fled again, this time to Riyadh, the capital of Saudi Arabia. He called for military intervention before he left. Yemenis fear that the Saudi action will catalyse the countrys long-predicted collapse into what Jamal Benomar, the UN envoy to Yemen, has described as an Iraq-Libya-Syria scenario.

 

The air strikes have laid bare the divisions caused by the Houthis rise. In the south of the country and in northern tribal areas populated by Sunnis, who fear dominance by the Houthis Zaydi sect (a subset of Shia Islam), people are cheering the Saudi-led campaign.

But in Sanaa even the Houthis sternest critics are dismayed by the foreign bombardment. Many Yemenis believe it will only lead to more fighting. Saudi Arabia is fucking our country, says a Sunni tribesman who spent the night cowering with his family in Sanaa as blasts echoed through the capital.

The anti-Houthi groups wish is not to bring back Mr Hadia man who ceded control of the capital without a fight six months ago; it is that the Houthi menace be brought to heel.

Yet Saudi Arabias attempt to bring this about risks leading to an expansion of sectarian violence between Sunni and Shia. That is because Yemen will inevitably become a proxy battleground for Saudi Arabia, a Sunni bulwark, and Iran, the main Shia power.

Extremist Sunni groups are already active. Yemen is home to al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP), al-Qaedas deadliest branch, and an affiliate of Islamic State, which claimed responsibility for the suicide bombings of two Zaydi mosques in Sanaa on March 20th, leaving at least 137 people dead.

Before he left the country, Mr Hadi was in the process of forming a 20,000 strong Saudi-backed militia. His opponents accuse him of arming and funding some Sunni extremist groups.

For the Houthis, the Saudi-led operation is a public-relations coup. In a vitriolic and paranoid speech on March 20th, their leader, Abdelmalek al-Houthi, accused the Gulf Arab states and America of plotting to destabilise the country in order to reinstall Mr Hadi as a puppet leader.

The Houthis have evolved into a highly effective guerrilla force after a decade of war against Mr Saleh and Saudi Arabia. With the backing of Saleh loyalists they are likely to prove a tough enemy.

 

 

They control the skies and we control the ground, says a Houthi man in Sanaa. This will be just like the sixth war in Saada when the Saudis lost Saudi territory, he says, referring to an earlier bombing campaign by the kingdom in 2009. Houthis responded to that by crossing the border and humiliating the Saudi army by seizing dozens of towns and villages. On March 26th, after threatening revenge against the Zionist Saudi regime, they said that they had fired rockets across the border into Saudi territory. As so often in the Middle East, the Saudis may find that joining a war is easier than winning one.

"Zionist Saudi regime"? I do not think it means what they think it does. :blink:

I guess any enemy of them is branded zionist.

 

edit to correct url tags

Edited by Panzermann
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"Zionist Saudi regime"? I do not think it means what they think it does. :blink:

I guess any enemy of them is branded zionist.

 

 

That is a generic Arab/Muslim accusation. Whoever opposes you is working for the Jooooz: Hamas, Hisbollah, Fatah, Muslim Brotherhood ect. pp. ... The Elders of Zion control their every move.

 

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