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2024-05-19 Arabia
Yemen’s Houthis claim to shoot down US MQ-9 Reaper drone; ship targeted in Red Sea
[IsraelTimes] Footage appears to show wreckage of $30 million UAV; missile fired at Panama-flagged vessel off the coast of Yemeni port Hodeida, crew all safe

Yemen
...an area of the Arabian Peninsula sometimes mistaken for a country. It is populated by more antagonistic tribes and factions than you can keep track of...
’s Iran's Houthi sock puppets
...a Zaidi Shia insurgent group operating in Yemen. They have also been referred to as the Believing Youth. Hussein Badreddin al-Houthi is said to be the spiritual leader of the group and most of the military leaders are his relatives. The legitimate Yemeni government has accused the them of having ties to the Iranian government. Honest they did. The group has managed to gain control over all of Saada Governorate and parts of Amran, Al Jawf and Hajjah Governorates. Its slogan is God is Great, Death to America™, Death to Israel, a curse on the Jews They like shooting off... ummm... missiles that they would have us believe they make at home in their basements. On the plus side, they did murder Ali Abdullah Saleh, which was the only way the country was ever going to be rid of him...
rebels on Friday claimed to have shot down an American drone, hours after footage circulated online of what appeared to be the wreckage of an MQ-9 Reaper drone. Early Saturday, a vessel also came under attack in the Red Sea.

Houthi military front man Brig. Gen. Yahya Saree claimed that rebels shot down the Reaper on Thursday with a surface-to-air missile. He described the drone as "carrying out hostile actions" in Yemen’s Marib province, which remains held by allies of Yemen’s exiled, internationally recognized government.

The Houthis later released footage they claimed showed the surface-to-air-missile being launched at night, along with night-vision footage of the missile hitting the drone. A man, whose voice had been digitally altered to apparently prevent identification, chanted the Houthi slogan: "God is the greatest; death to America; death to Israel; curse the Jews; victory to Islam."

Online video showed wreckage resembling the pieces of the Reaper on the ground, as well as footage of that wreckage on fire.

The United States military did not respond to a request for comment from The News Agency that Dare Not be Named over the Houthi claim. While the rebels have made claims about attacks that turned out later not to be true, they have a history of shooting down US drones and have been armed by their main benefactor, Iran, with weapons capable of high-altitude attack.

Since the Houthis seized the country’s north and its capital, Sanaa, in 2014, the US military has previously lost at least five drones to the rebels.

Reapers, which cost around $30 million apiece, can fly at altitudes up to 50,000 feet and have an endurance of up to 24 hours before needing to land.

The drone shootdown comes as the Houthis launch attacks on shipping in the Red Sea and Gulf of Aden, demanding Israel ends the war against Hamas
..the well-beloved offspring of the Moslem Brotherhood,...
in Gazoo
...Hellhole adjunct to Israel and Egypt's Sinai Peninsula, inhabited by Gazooks. The place was acquired in the wake of the 1967 War and then presented to Paleostinian control in 2006 by Ariel Sharon, who had entered his dotage. It is currently ruled with an iron fist by Hamas with about the living conditions you'd expect. It periodically attacks the Hated Zionist Entity whenever Iran needs a ruckus created or the hard boyz get bored, getting thumped by the IDF in return. The ruling turbans then wave the bloody shirt and holler loudly about oppression and disproportionate response...
The Houthis have launched more than 50 attacks on shipping, seized one vessel and sunk another since November, according to the US Maritime Administration.

Early Saturday, the British military’s United Kingdom Maritime Trade Operations center said a ship came under attack off the coast of Yemen’s port city of Hodeida. The captain "has confirmed sustaining slight damage after being struck by an unknown object on his port quarter," the UKMTO said. "The vessel and crew are safe and continuing to its next port of call."

Houthi attacks have dropped in recent weeks as the rebels have been targeted by a US-led Arclight airstrike
...KABOOM!...
campaign in Yemen. Shipping through the Red Sea and Gulf of Aden still remains low because of the threat, however.

Last week, the Houthis threatened to extend their attacks to Israel-bound shipping to the Mediterranean.
Posted by trailing wife 2024-05-19 2024-05-19 01:51|| || Front Page|| [140 views ]  Top
 File under: Houthis 

#1 It would be reasonable for these expensive and sophisticated drones to be equipped with an independent, hardened watchdog computer that would destroy sensitive data and instruments with thermite charges if certain conditions are met.

If that's the case this will not really benefit the Houthis.

However, is there any political will to erase Houthi piracy permanently either by means of deterrence or neutralization of their capabilities?

The damage inflicted on the world economy by even small attacks is ridiculously high.
Posted by Elmerert Hupens2660 2024-05-19 11:33||   2024-05-19 11:33|| Front Page Top

#2 They will begin to behave in mid January like everybody else.
Posted by Super Hose 2024-05-19 13:57||   2024-05-19 13:57|| Front Page Top

#3 ^The situation in January will depend on the margin of fortification.
Posted by Elmerert Hupens2660 2024-05-19 15:16||   2024-05-19 15:16|| Front Page Top

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