The above video is supposedly combat footage from a Houthi rebel raid into Saudi Arabia. I say "supposedly" because, despite my best efforts, I have not been able to authenticate it. The video claims it is from a raid on the border town of al-Rabuah in Saudi Arabia. Though I have no way of confirming that, the footage matches what I would expect a border raid into Saudi Arabia to look like. Supposedly this raid took place on November 3rd but I have not been able to confirm that either.
What is clear is that it is an amazing example of modern combat footage, and I highly recommend watching it if you have the time (it is quite long though). The Houthi rebels managed to get quite a bit of the action during this raid on camera and the results are rather impressive. In short a group of Houthi light infantry, armed with rifles, machine guns, mortars and RPG's, managed to push back a Saudi Arabian force made up of armored cars and light armor. There's quite a few shots of burning armored cars and the destruction of captured vehicles by the Houthis.
In one engagement the Houthis fire on light pickup trucks. The men in the trucks run into a near by building and you can see the impact of bullets right next to them as they flee. The Saudis show up in armored cars and at least one M113 APC to evacuate the men. It does not go well for them. One armored car narrowly escapes being destroyed and the M113 APC leaves in such a hurry that they left the back doors open on the thing.
Later on in the battle Houthi rebels fire RPG's at various vehicles, all of them parked, including more of the armored cars, another M113 and at least a couple of Humvee's. They manage to blow them all up though it is unclear if they were manned or not. Either way, the Houthis were under fire when they did so.
As for my thoughts on the footage, I was impressed. This was a professional raid and I was surprised at how well equipped the Houthis appeared to be. Unlike much of the footage out of Syria or Iraq, the Houthis had uniforms, body armor and helmets. In short they looked like a real army. I was also able to pick out a couple of times where they talked about Israel and America. I am going to assume they didn't have anything nice to say about either country.
I also thought the fighters were pretty well disciplined as well. There was heavy fire incoming at them at several points and I didn't see anyone look panicked. Though it is unclear how close the cameraman was, at one point in the video he got a great shot of an armored car shooting at his comrades. They were also fighting smart. The end of the video shows them destroying the vehicles they had captured. They knew that they couldn't really bring them with them, so they decided to blow them up where they were.
I haven't had much to say about the Yemeni conflict lately. This video makes it clear that I probably should be talking about it more. It's just that Syria has gone so completely crazy that I've been focusing on it. Plus the presidential election is heating up as well. Still, even if me and the media haven't been paying attention, the war in Yemen continues to rage. And if this video is legit, then it is quickly spreading to Saudi Arabia as well...
And, if for whatever reason the youtube video is taken down, here's an archive link.
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