Some new stuff, well new to me at least
Yemen was divided into north Yemen and south Yemen until 1990. (my memory of that time in regards to Yemen escaped me) There are religious and cultural differences between the two, (north and south). In days of empire south Yemen was a British protectorate, whereas North Yemen was under Ottoman control. Why north and south unified in 1990 I dont know.
The Houthis have captured at least 1 Leclerc mbt. I dont know if it just broke down and the crew bugged out. There is damage to the back, so maybe it was immobilized by an RPG/missile and the crew decided to abandon it. I guess all the secrets of its technology are at risk of being photographed and disseminated to non western states, assuming they did not know everything already
Egypt has sent 2000 troops to Yemen.
The Saudis have recruited 7000 Somalis to fight for them. Why I dont know, possibly they have a lot of money and would prefer Somali casualties over Saudi. I doubt these Somali troops are likely to be highly trained or motivated, just possibly they were motivated by a lot of cash
In Yemen, at least 6000 people have died in the war so far, roughly half civilian and roughly half Houthi. The anti Saudi feeling in the nation is not going to bode well for continual Saudi occupation, hearts and minds and all that
The Houthis have advanced approximately 10km north into Saudi Arabia and are closing in on the Saudi town of Jizin. Whether or not they are strong enough, or have intent to take it, is most problematic
The GCC has lost at least 55 armored vehicles. Casualties at least 150 KIA. Possibly a lot more, but the GCC (Saudis) is not releasing the figures. The 150 seems low to me, there were 70 killed alone in one ballistic missile strike. My guess is that is would have to be a few hundred by know.
The GCC has had four Apaches shot down. Add to that another four Apaches destroyed in the ballistic missile strike that killed 70 GCC soldiers.
Sometimes it is the Hadis (South Yemenis) that are using Saudi supplied armoured vehicles that get shot up, possibly confusing things.
The GCC seems relatively inept it its tactics, there seems a lack of infantry to protect the armoured vehicles. Or a lack of infantry that are willing to told to leave their armoured vehicles.
Dengue fever and famine are now starting to be big problems in Yemen. Dengue fever has already killed a dozen or so people, with the potential for it to get worse.
Even if all the air power, all the tanks, all the billions of dollars does leave the GCC in apparent control of all of Yemen, seems reasonable to assume that the Houthis and a large portion of the populace will start a guerrilla campaign and I dont see that ending well for the GCC.
In other discussion forums there is not a lot of sympathy for the Saudi position. It is plausible that a Houthi regime which had Iranian influence could theoretically be a cause of instability to the region by attacking oil tankers and launching raids into Saudi Arabia. My handle on this, is that why would they do so, it will only garner them more enemies. Theoretically in the straits between Yemen and Africa were closed to oil tankers, they could still go around south africa, a very large annoyance it is true, but not the end to the survivability of the gulf states
There seems to be some thought to a ceasefire/peace agreement along the lines of the line of control. The line of control seems to quite closely match the pre 1990 borders of North Yemen. So possibly it may be best to say the experiment of joining north and south Yemen has not been successful and partition as a long term solution is a better option
Some links
Egypt sends troops and tanks to battle Houthis in Yemen | The Times of Israel
http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-17Dct65gb...40/Houthis+with+captured+UAE+Leclerc+tank.jpg
Mapping the Yemen conflict | European Council on Foreign Relations
