Saudi Arabia has launched a major airstrike against targets at Sanaa International Airport in Yemen. BBC. The Saudi led coalition hit the airport because they claimed that it was being used to launch drone attacks against Saudi Arabia. The strikes were supposedly limited in nature, only targeting areas used for the drone forces. It is unclear how much damage has been done but Saudi Arabia claims that air travel will not be affected. The war in Yemen started in 2014 and has raged since, with spillover attacks targeting Saudi Arabia becoming common.
My Comment:
Just a quick post about one of the more forgotten wars in the world right now. The Yemeni conflict, which is actually a proxy conflict between Iran and Saudi Arabia, has killed and displaced thousands of people. It has fallen out of the headlines though, despite the hybrid warfare being rather extreme. After all, how many civil wars involve launching drone and ballistic missile strikes against oil refineries?
It is those attacks that this airstrike was in response to. Drones have been a huge threat against the Saudi Arabians and have been used in several major attacks that did millions of dollars of damage. They are probably even a bigger threat than the Yemeni ballistic missiles that were launched earlier in the war. I haven't heard of any recent attacks with those missiles, so I am assuming they ran out, but the drones are still a major threat.
It does seem like the Houthi rebels were being pretty smart with their drone forces, which were probably supplied and trained by the Iranians. Saudi Arabia was probably very risk averse from hitting targets at this airports. Taking out the drone forces would be good but they risked bad publicity, civilian casualties and stopping much of the relief and charity efforts centered in Sanaa. Without the airport that relief would have more difficulty to get in.
It's unclear if that result happened. I think if it had though the Houthi rebels would be telling every news outlet in the world that would listen that it did. My guess is that the strike was successful and the Houthi rebels are going to have a much more difficult time launching drone attacks in Yemen and beyond.
As for the war itself I don't see it ending anytime soon. In general the war seems to be mostly stagnant with neither side being able to wipe out the other. Saudi Arabia and their allies do not seem strong enough to put down the rebels. They could launch a full scale invasion but even that might not be enough. And the Houthis aren't strong enough to push out the Saudi backed government, even with Iran's help. I fear it will be status quo there for quite some time, even if this strike changes the calculus a little bit.
No comments:
Post a Comment