Yemen Fights Back - Saudi Arabia In Deep Sh_t

Well the Houthis are really taking the fight home into Saudi Arabia and into the UAE. Saudi Arabia and the UAE launched an attack against Yemen in 2015 - FOUR years ago. They were hoping that the attack would not last more than TWO WEEKS.  Well it has been FOUR years now and the Saudis are even further away from winning the war.

There has been a significant development over the past few days when Houthi divers (obviously) attached limpet mines to FOUR oil tankers and seriously damaged them. Even more significant is the fact that the attack took place in UAE waters.

A couple of days later the Houthis launched attack drones which blew up TWO oil pumping stations along major Saudi pipelines and set them on fire. Oil flow has been stopped.

This is NOT really an escalation. The Houthis are at last bringing the fight deeper into Saudi Arabia. 

This is taken from the Daily Mail UK at this link here.

Norwegian tanker Andrea Victory, another of the 

four damaged boats, large dent in stern 

sabotage attacks on Saudi oil tankers carried out using limpet mines

magnetic explosives.  

'sabotage'  sent tensions spiralling in Middle East 

Tensions heightened after two pumping stations on major Saudi pipeline  attacked by explosive-laden drones, halting the flow of crude 

Iran said there 'won't be any war' 
U.S. Mike Pompeo, said U.S. 'fundamentally does not seek any war' 

Trump dismissed claims 120,000 troops to Middle East
calling reports 'fake news'    

Spain pulled frigate Mendez Nunez because of mounting U.S. - Iran tensions

Houthis said they targeted several vital Saudi targets with drones 

targeting of Saudi vital installations response to genocide on Yemeni people

Oil infrastructure targeted with fire breaking out along pipeline

Houthis battling Saudi coalition in Yemen
meant to send message to Saudi 'stop your aggression' on their country    

Saudi and UAE attacked Yemen in 2015 

Tehran distanced itself from ship sabotage

four commercial ships mysteriously 'sabotaged' off UAE 
oil pipeline was targeted in a wave of drone attacks +26

Shipping experts warned of threat of conflict 

military escalation could affect exports out of the region


My comments :  

That drone attack is quite a distance from the Yemen border, almost 1000 kilometres. The Houthis obviously have the capacity to  launch a drone for such a long distance with sufficient fuel and payload.

The attack on the FOUR tankers took place near the Straits of Hormuz, again a long distance from Yemen. The natural suspects would be Iran (along their shoreline) but they have firmly denied involvement.  Again this shows some advanced capability, however this attack was planned and carried out.  

Brent crude has already hit US70 per barrel.  

The Iranians have de-escalated tensions by saying they are not involved and they will not be going to war anytime soon.

The US has also denied they want to go to war and Donald Trump has dismissed the fake news about the US sending 120,000 troops to the Gulf.

This means that the Saudis - UAE are quite alone in fending off these increasingly sophisticated, daring and extremely low cost attacks by the Houthis.

Their camel is getting cooked.