Retaliatory attacks to encourage Yemenis against aggressors

… by  Jim W. Dean, VT Editor    with Press TV, Tehran

[ Note: Yemenis are reporting today that they have brought down a Saudi drone, as in taking it over to land, which comes as a big surprise. So either those folks have some whiz kid geeks helping them out now that the schools are out, or they are getting some technical assistance from some friends.

When they shot down the two planes in one week, I had thought that was the beginning of a sustained air defense campaign, but its fizzling out seems to indicate that someone there found a few ground-to-air missiles and put them to use while they still could.

The Saudis have a powerful force and supply line in the port city of Aden, but as they extend their lines into the interior, they become susceptible to a guerilla war in which supply lines are attacked endlessly. The wild card is that drone surveillance and air power can be quite effective in open desert territory… finding and destroying adversaries.

But, the Yemenis have been operating in this open territory for some time now. I don’t see the Saudis showing any interest in a negotiation, as any let up would allow the Houthis to reorganize their defenses and replenish.

I fear that a Saudi coalition is going to pursue a war of attrition, with their military and money up against the people’s committees, their fighting spirit and a large number of fighters in Yemen who will keep fighting as long as they have no other choice.

How are they keeping their ammo supplies going and getting fuel for their vehicles? It looks like they have the ghost of Houdini working with them. Once the ammo has run out, the bravest of the brave can no longer fight, and have to melt away and hope to fight another day… Jim W. Dean ]

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– First aired  …  August 28,  2015 –

Press TV has conducted an interview with Jim W. Dean, managing editor of the VT from Atlanta, for his insights into the Yemeni people’s retaliatory attacks against military positions in southern Saudi Arabia and the Saudis’ invasion of northern Yemen.

The following is a rough transcription of the interview.

Press TV: It seems that the Saudis are finally annoyed that their bases are being attacked in the southern regions especially and they are acting now to try to prevent that. Do you think they would be able to prevent that considering these retaliation has been going for so long now?

Dean: Well, it will turn into a hit-run a kind of the real war. Like you said I was surprised that the Saudis have avoided this long. They’ve avoided casualties generally when their bases have been attacked the garrisons that have been holding just withdrawn to avoid the Yemenis being able to collect a batch o Saudi prisoners.

But they have been isolated units and this is what the Yemenis have to do is gets local superiority over smaller targets and try to win still some courage in the people and behind the scenes. Because they have a big problem with the offensive in the south, which is probably going to determine what happens with the success of the war or failure.

Press TV: Of course, there’s an easy solution to the Saudis not having rockets coming towards their bases and that is obviously to not continue to bomb Yemen. Do you think that’s even on the horizon at this point?

Dean: Not really, the Saudis can stay in this, they’ve got the money. They don’t worry about the losses. They’ve been involved in the Syrian situation for years now and this is what I’ve always worried about that this is going to be a slow war of attrition.

And they would just hope, which has failed in Syria, that the people would get sick of it and just say we want to make peace and we just don’t want to support the war any more.  But the Yemenis are also very tough. So, this unfortunately could go on for a long time with a lot of civilians’ suffering.

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Jim W. Dean

Jim W. Dean was an active editor on VT from 2010-2022.  He was involved in operations, development, and writing, plus an active schedule of TV and radio interviews.

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