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The military situation in Yemen is rapidly becoming more and more complicated. While the port city of al-Hudaydah remains the main hot point of clashes between Ansar Allah (also known as the Houthis) and the Saudi-UAE coalition, military actions are ongoing across the entire western part of the country.
According to pro-Houthi sources, during the recent clashes near al-Hudaydah, 30 members of the Saudi-UAE coalition forces were killed and 50 others were injured as well as 13 vehicles were destroyed.
Coalition forces also advanced on Houthi positions in the areas of Damt and Jubannorth of Dhale, but the coalition was not able to make any progress there.
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Additionally, the Houthis carried out a series of counter-attacks near the town of Harad. The coalition forces have been for a long time attempting to encircle this Houthi stronghold.
In the Dhahir district in northern Yemen, the Houthis shot down an unmanned aerial vehicle of the Saudi Air Force.
Now silence from the Coalition on the situation in Hodeidah. That tells me all I need to know. This seems to me more and more an attempt to distract from Khashoggi fiasco. By launching not one but many offensives, the Coalition is giving the world not one, but many failures to keep eyes from straying back to inconvenient topics – well ok, what now MbS?
According to Al-Masdar some UAE backed forces finally entred Hodeidah. I pray that they will get nowhere, and I believe the AnsarAllah will stop them.
Can I ask you, because my knowledge of these matters is not much, AnsarAllah have been putting a lot of work defending Kilo 16 (as seen in the video above and many of the news reports from AL Masirah and the like) and the Saudi/UAE aggression also has put a lot of effort around taking it. Why?
See my comment above. As for focus on a geographic point, this suggests tactical or strategic significance – think of chess a battle ofver a pawn in a key position – if the pawn falls, the defence line is broken and defender vulnerable. But what is happening now is very strange as I comment in my post above
Give the Houthis Mo’ ATGMs…. Blow these Talmudic-Wahhabi-Demonic-Parasites back to the Hell they came from…. Hang, Draw & Quarter Mohammed Ben Shlomo….Chop That Bitch up…
What a coalition. All butchers have come together and have formed a coalition.
Saudi regime digging their own graves very fast. They don’t learn from Saddam Hussain that on Washington demand they have invaded Iran. What Washington have done with Iraq, the same they will do with Saudi regime. Saudi regime day by day becoming isolated. Wrong decisions lead the regime to collapse.
Ansarullah Leader, Abdulmalik Badr al-Din al-Houthi, on Wednesday called on free Yemeni people to head seriously towards combat fronts, especially in the western coast, to counter Saudi-led coalition, according to Yemen Press Agency. “The western coast battle is a battle of great importance because it is taking place on an area of more than 200 kilometers,” al-Houthi said in a speech aired by Al-Masirah TV Channel. He added “the enemy’s control on some areas does not mean that the battle is over, but means the confrontation is inevitable.” https://yemen-rw.org/leader-of-ansarullah-calls-for-countering-coalition-in-western-coast/
This was reported only a few hours ago and is very important. It indicates the Coalition is going all in and the Houthis recognize this. The announcement speaks of a 200km front on west coast alone (not counting other conflict areas) which is a front that is large for a force of 10,000, – this is a frontage for a corp or a dozen brigades and in the case of a offensive operation, more than that – an enveloping operation to cut off the port needs a force larger than 10,000 to secure flanks at the very least.
so there is a broad offensive and there must be significant Coalition forces involved in addittion to the 10,000 strong force described prior attacking Hodeidah. In all the time following Yemen, I have not been surprised like this, there is something weird – this massive offensive while Houthis are doing serious damage on multiple front and all of a sudden this!
To put in perspective, the attack on Hodeidah does littele for Houthis due to Blockade, the value to the coalition is to secure supply by sea to mount further offensive operations. BUT, Souther borrder of Saudi Arabia has a deteriorating security situation and this is clear, so I would expect the Coalition to ensure the border is secure as a priority – taking Hodeidah would mean little if a major city/town fell in Saudi Kingdom given state of unrest. So I reserve comment for now until I figure out what the hell is going on.
This latest offensive has undoubtably been planned and co-ordinated with the Australian staff officers embedded in UAE Ops – as seconded or contract officers they were prominrnt in the initial amphibious invasion of south Yemen.