Yemeni Conflict: News #2

franco wrote:

starman wrote:So what's the political significance? The Houthis are more firmly in control, without those backstabbers?

Houthis are Shiite and make up only 40% of the population. Saleh was Sunni and represented the fraction of them not supporting the Saudi backed Sunni's.  

Sometimes depending of the sources it reachs a 45-46% for the entire country.

There is not doubt that in the territory of the former North Yemen the shia population is a majority, even bigger in the territory controled by the Houthis, and  even with the integration of some shia population from Saudi Arabia, that is present near the borders of Yemen.

JohninMK wrote:

George1 wrote:

eehnie wrote:

franco wrote:

starman wrote:So what's the political significance? The Houthis are more firmly in control, without those backstabbers?

Houthis are Shiite and make up only 40% of the population. Saleh was Sunni and represented the fraction of them not supporting the Saudi backed Sunni's.  

Sometimes depending of the sources it reachs a 45-46% for the entire country.

There is not doubt that in the territory of the former North Yemen the shia population is a majority, even bigger in the territory controled by the Houthis, and  even with the integration of some shia population from Saudi Arabia, that is present near the borders of Yemen.

it seems that we go for a partition in former countries where now north yemen will become a shiite state and south yemen a shunni one allied with saudia arabia

Yemen is marginally economically viable as a whole, divided it fails.

Based on what?

JohninMK wrote:

KoTeMoRe wrote:Damn they nailed him proper.

Immobilized the BP Landie, then dragged him out and shot him close range just above the eye. Like a dog.

Flip flop for life.

Looking at the holes in the windscreen, if he was in the front seat one of those shots could have got him. Excellent shooting btw.

It wasn't a Landie, it looked like a Shogun.

EDIT Photo added. A bullet through either hole could have done the damage to his head, depending on whether the shooter was high or low relative to the SUV.

That's a Land Cruiser (J200). It is bullet proof, probably cat 2, they basically shot an RPG at the front axle. Then took every one out and shot them like a dog. There are a lot of fragment scratches on Saleh's face. Maybe a second RPG from the other side was fired.

However there is one entry hole over the eye.

George1 wrote:Saleh support for Houthis was clearly opportunistic.

In more than one way. He tried to survive after Ansarallah i.e. Houthi revolution and backstab them when the time was right. Ended up with failed backstab attempt and a bullet in his head.
KSA, Saleh, Hadi and their Western and regional backers with Israel on top are a bunch of sore losers.

JohninMK wrote:

eehnie wrote:

JohninMK wrote:

George1 wrote:

eehnie wrote:

franco wrote:

starman wrote:So what's the political significance? The Houthis are more firmly in control, without those backstabbers?

Houthis are Shiite and make up only 40% of the population. Saleh was Sunni and represented the fraction of them not supporting the Saudi backed Sunni's.  

Sometimes depending of the sources it reachs a 45-46% for the entire country.

There is not doubt that in the territory of the former North Yemen the shia population is a majority, even bigger in the territory controled by the Houthis, and  even with the integration of some shia population from Saudi Arabia, that is present near the borders of Yemen.

it seems that we go for a partition in former countries where now north yemen will become a shiite state and south yemen a shunni one allied with saudia arabia

Yemen is marginally economically viable as a whole, divided it fails.

Based on what?

Just off the top of my head, their geography, their lack of production of anything much that the rest of the World wants, their agricultural output not producing enough to feed the population so that it needs continual UN food support.

Do you have an alternative view?

You should say the economic war of US/Israel/Saudi Arabia and all their allies, plus the economic side of the maritime blockade.

Also you should say the continuous efforts to fuel a war in the territory plus the continuous bombing of every thing with economic value to produce something.

Note that this is the part of the Arabian peninsula with highest density of population, until the begin of the explotation of the oil. This is the part of the Arabian peninsula with most favourable conditions to sustain a population.

These arguments about economic viability tend to be very, very, very dirty.

eehnie wrote:

JohninMK wrote:

eehnie wrote:

JohninMK wrote:

George1 wrote:

eehnie wrote:

franco wrote:

starman wrote:So what's the political significance? The Houthis are more firmly in control, without those backstabbers?

Houthis are Shiite and make up only 40% of the population. Saleh was Sunni and represented the fraction of them not supporting the Saudi backed Sunni's.  

Sometimes depending of the sources it reachs a 45-46% for the entire country.

There is not doubt that in the territory of the former North Yemen the shia population is a majority, even bigger in the territory controled by the Houthis, and  even with the integration of some shia population from Saudi Arabia, that is present near the borders of Yemen.

it seems that we go for a partition in former countries where now north yemen will become a shiite state and south yemen a shunni one allied with saudia arabia

Yemen is marginally economically viable as a whole, divided it fails.

Based on what?

Just off the top of my head, their geography, their lack of production of anything much that the rest of the World wants, their agricultural output not producing enough to feed the population so that it needs continual UN food support.

Do you have an alternative view?

You should say the economic war of US/Israel/Saudi Arabia and all their allies, plus the economic side of the maritime blockade.

Also you should say the continuous efforts to fuel a war in the territory plus the continuous bombing of every thing with economic value to produce something.

Note that this is the part of the Arabian peninsula with highest density of population, until the begin of the explotation of the oil. This is the part of the Arabian peninsula with most favourable conditions to sustain a population.

These arguments about economic viability tend to be very, very, very dirty.

Long before any Saudi or US intervention Yemen was a mess when its about economy and population standard. It was even worse before oil industry started to work.

And when its about food production, it reached its peak years ago as almost two thirds of work able citizens work fields, and its not enough for their population, due to one weird reason... where is the damn water and lets say they havent improved much in agroculture technology for a while.

Many families sustained themself mostly due to fact they had family members working in Kuwait, S. Arabia, UAE... even Iraq etc.

JohninMK wrote:

eehnie wrote:

JohninMK wrote:

George1 wrote:

eehnie wrote:

franco wrote:

starman wrote:So what's the political significance? The Houthis are more firmly in control, without those backstabbers?

Houthis are Shiite and make up only 40% of the population. Saleh was Sunni and represented the fraction of them not supporting the Saudi backed Sunni's.  

Sometimes depending of the sources it reachs a 45-46% for the entire country.

There is not doubt that in the territory of the former North Yemen the shia population is a majority, even bigger in the territory controled by the Houthis, and  even with the integration of some shia population from Saudi Arabia, that is present near the borders of Yemen.

it seems that we go for a partition in former countries where now north yemen will become a shiite state and south yemen a shunni one allied with saudia arabia

Yemen is marginally economically viable as a whole, divided it fails.

Based on what?

Just off the top of my head, their geography, their lack of production of anything much that the rest of the World wants, their agricultural output not producing enough to feed the population so that it needs continual UN food support.

Do you have an alternative view?

They are famous for Khat tho

Militarov wrote:

eehnie wrote:

JohninMK wrote:

eehnie wrote:

JohninMK wrote:

George1 wrote:

eehnie wrote:

franco wrote:

starman wrote:So what's the political significance? The Houthis are more firmly in control, without those backstabbers?

Houthis are Shiite and make up only 40% of the population. Saleh was Sunni and represented the fraction of them not supporting the Saudi backed Sunni's.  

Sometimes depending of the sources it reachs a 45-46% for the entire country.

There is not doubt that in the territory of the former North Yemen the shia population is a majority, even bigger in the territory controled by the Houthis, and  even with the integration of some shia population from Saudi Arabia, that is present near the borders of Yemen.

it seems that we go for a partition in former countries where now north yemen will become a shiite state and south yemen a shunni one allied with saudia arabia

Yemen is marginally economically viable as a whole, divided it fails.

Based on what?

Just off the top of my head, their geography, their lack of production of anything much that the rest of the World wants, their agricultural output not producing enough to feed the population so that it needs continual UN food support.

Do you have an alternative view?

You should say the economic war of US/Israel/Saudi Arabia and all their allies, plus the economic side of the maritime blockade.

Also you should say the continuous efforts to fuel a war in the territory plus the continuous bombing of every thing with economic value to produce something.

Note that this is the part of the Arabian peninsula with highest density of population, until the begin of the explotation of the oil. This is the part of the Arabian peninsula with most favourable conditions to sustain a population.

These arguments about economic viability tend to be very, very, very dirty.

Long before any Saudi or US intervention Yemen was a mess when its about economy and population standard. It was even worse before oil industry started to work.

And when its about food production, it reached its peak years ago as almost two thirds of work able citizens work fields, and its not enough for their population, due to one weird reason... where is the damn water and lets say they havent improved much in agroculture technology for a while.

Many families sustained themself mostly due to fact they had family members working in Kuwait, S. Arabia, UAE... even Iraq etc.

The anti shia policies in Yemen come at least from the 1980s. Is not something new. And always the same foreign powers have been involved.

JohninMK wrote:

eehnie wrote:

The anti shia policies in Yemen come at least from the 1980s. Is not something new. And always the same foreign powers have been involved.

Think you are getting to emotionally involved in forming your views. The problems that you talk about are relatively recent 30-40 years political and military. I agree that human stupidity has added significantly to the problems but Yemen has has these problems for hundreds of years.

Much more fundamental is the inability of the agricultural land in Yemen to produce enough to support its population. There just isn't enough good land there or, perhaps as Militarov says, there definitely isn't enough water. That wouldn't necessarily be a problem if they had something to sell that they could buy food in with. But there doesn't seem to be much there.

Hence my original comment.

i have 0 emotional ties with either side here. I'm not shia, I'm not muslim, I'm European and I give not importance to religion in my life. Still I understand the nature of religious wars.

The importance of wars + economic wars/blockade in the economic situation of Yemen are out of question. Nothing emotional.

The work on sea always has been an important part of the primary survival economy of Yemen. And this is almost totally blocked. The agriculture in Yemen is for sure the most productive in the entire Arabian peninsula, you only have to check density population maps to realize of it.

The wars in Yemen are not an emotional question. Are fairly real and verifiable:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_wars_involving_Yemen
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_wars_involving_South_Yemen

These wars have been many times promoted by outside powers and have in most of the cases if not all a clear political/religious nature.

Only one question. How would be the famine in the UK, being under this kind of economic war and economic blockade?

Not like the Americans to admit such info.

A report by the New York Times has quoted experts claiming the Patriot air defense system operated by the Royal Saudi Air Force failed to intercept a missile fired by Yemeni Houthi militants on Saudi Arabia’s King Khalid international airport in Riyadh on November 4. Five interceptors were fired at the Houthi missile—believed to be a Burqan-2, a Scud family missile popular in the Middle East—however, US officials now say that there was no evidence to prove that any of them hit the incoming missile. Instead, they said, the incoming missile body and warhead may have come apart because of its sheer speed and force. In the immediate aftermath of the attack, even US President Trump hailed the Patriot system's effectiveness—“That’s how good we are. Nobody makes what we make, and now we’re selling it all over the world”—but governments have overstated the effectiveness of missile defenses in the past, including against Scuds. During the first Gulf War, the United States claimed a near-perfect record in shooting down Iraqi variants of the Scud. Subsequent analyses found that nearly all the interceptions had failed.

https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2017/12/04/world/middleeast/saudi-missile-defense.html

The war in Yemen has recently intensified following the death of former President ‘Ali ‘Abdullah Saleh at the hands of the Houthis in Sanaa city.

With many of Saleh’s loyalists joining forces with the UAE-backed Southern Resistance in western Yemen, the Houthis have found themselves in a difficult position along the coast.

This would prove true on Thursday, when the Southern Resistance forces were able to overpower the Houthis at the strategic Al-Khokhah District, which is located just north of the Mocha Port.

In addition to capturing the Al-Khokhah District, the pro-government forces managed to enter the Hudaydah Governorate for the first time in years, following an intense battle this week.

While the setbacks are cause for concern, the Houthis should be able to maintain control over northwestern Yemen, given their large support base among the population.

JohninMK wrote:Going to be difficult to stop that lot.

The latest brand spanking new gear...lets see if they can fight. But you're right, unless there's some difficult terrain along the way where the Houthis can make a stand it would difficult to stop them.

JohninMK wrote:Going to be difficult to stop that lot.

True lets hope Iranians sent ATGMs and RPG-29s in quantities...

Cyberspec wrote:

JohninMK wrote:Going to be difficult to stop that lot.

The latest brand spanking new gear...lets see if they can fight. But you're right, unless there's some difficult terrain along the way where the Houthis can make a stand it would difficult to stop them.

Unless something major changed, most likely they still can't fight. They had fancy gear in the past but after brute-force kicking Ansarallah out of Aden they weren't able to progress much. My guess is that they will make some progress this time, again thanks to technological superiority in combination with good conditions to use it + Ansarallah weakness due to Saleh's timely backstab, but eventually grind to a halt.