American Drone Shot Over Yemen
Airmen work on an RQ-4 Global Hawk. (Ramon Adelan/U.S. Air Force/AP)
Houthi rebels shot a U.S. drone out of the sky in Yemen. They claim that the drone was “not authorized” to be in the airspace. However, the US military said it was authorized to operate in the airspace.
The Houthi are associated with Iran. One of the arguments advanced is that the Iranian’s provided them with the system/hardware needed to take the drone down. For their part, the Houthi is claiming that they used a system that they developed.
From Reuters:
The White House said it was aware of the reports and President Donald Trump had been briefed on the matter.
“This attack is only possible because of Iran’s lethal aid to the Houthis and serves as yet another example of the regime’s relentless efforts to escalate conflict and threaten regional stability,” National Security Council spokesman Garrett Marquis said.
Iran rejects accusations from the United States and its Gulf Arab allies that Tehran is providing military and financial support to the Houthis and blames Riyadh for the deepening crisis there.
Overnight, Houthi military spokesman Yahya Saria said that the drone had been shot down.
“The rocket which hit it was developed locally and will be revealed soon at a press conference,” Saria said on Twitter.
“Our skies are no longer open to violations as they once were and the coming days will see great surprises,” he added.
Iran’s adversaries are pointing to Iran as a supporter of these rebels. Iran seems to be interested in poking the international community bear. It appears that they are desperate to try to draw attention away from their inability to counter the negative effects of the sanctions against their economy.
The Washington Examiner, CNN, and Reuters have details.
Category: GWOT
Can’t we just nuke Tehran already?
if they shot down another RQ4, this shoot down stuff is getting real pricey real quick.
Bomb Yemen back to the stone age. Wait…they are already there.
Bomb them until everything’s rubble and then keep bombing them until the rubble bounces.
Nuke them till the rubble glows. FIFY
I’ve been to Yemen. They couldn’t develop a slingshot much less a rocket.
That’s pretty much what I was thinking. . .
The Sand People have captured R2-D2?
Not good. One would hope the UAV was flying a random profile and not becoming predictable.
Like this:
F-117A shootdown.
At least there was no American blood shed in this, but FFS don’t make it easy for them.
“Our skies are no longer open to violations as they once were and the coming days will see great surprises….”
Funny, I just had visions of ARC LIGHT strikes….
Regarding the ability of rebels to shoot down American aircraft, I’ll quote Dutch (Arnold Schwarzenegger) from Predator:
“Took ’em out wid a heat seekah. That’s pretty sophisticated for a bunch of half-ass mountain boys.”