In what appears to be the single deadliest strike of the nine-month Saudi war in Yemen, forces loyal to the Shi’ite Houthis fired an OTR-21 Tochka tactical ballistic missile at a pro-Saudi coalition base near Taiz, with early reports putting the death toll around 152 troops.
The identities of all the slain are still being sorted out, but dozens of foreign troops are among the slain, including Saudi Special Forces commander Col. Abdullah Sahyan. Emirati and Moroccan soldiers were also identified as among the slain.
The Houthis reported the attack was carried out by one of the nation’s few remaining Tochka missiles, and reported causing “many losses in lives and military equipment,” claiming to have destroyed Apache helicopters in the strike.
This is the second Tochka missile used in the war, with a previous strike against an Emirati base in Maarib Province back in September, an attack which killed 45 soldiers. These stand as the two deadliest strikes against combatants during the war, though there have been several incidents where scores of civilians were slain.
Yemen was believed to have around 10 Tochka missiles at the start of the war. It is unclear how many remain, as many early attacks targeted bases believed to hold Yemen’s missile arsenals.
Wow!
More missiles can be supplied. North Vietnam kept a steady supply for years. So have Hezbollah and Hamas.
This "worked" and so we can expect more of it. That is how wars go.
This is just one more variant on a system the Soviets put in place half a century ago, and other variants are made all over the world, including North Korea and Iran. Certainly improvements have evolved, but it is still the basic original inertial guidance of a rocket of the same basic dimensions.
Depending upon which missile was used, they have a margin of error that is 150m or less. The fragments are lethal to at least 200m. I've also read that several Academi employees were present at the site.
Dec 9, 2015 US & Britain Planned Use of Islamic Extremists to Topple Syria 57 Years Ago
BBC reports that – in 1957 – the British and American leaders approved the use of Islamic extremists and false flag attacks to topple the Syrian government: Nearly 50 years before the war in Iraq, Britain and America sought a secretive “regime change” in another Arab country… by planning the invasion of Syria and the assassination of leading figures.
https://youtu.be/57Qk0wEPZWE
Most excellent! I hope that gives the mercenaries some second thoughts on their profession. I suppose this comment means I'm in "material support" of Houthi terrorist.
There are reports that say up 50 Blackwater contractors were killed in this missile attack. It also took out three Apache Helicopters and numurous support vehicles and tanks.
I am sure the thousands of innocent Yemen civilians who have been slaughtered by the Saudi/Obama monsters are smiling in their graves.
Tochka missiles are made in Russia. Which begs the question, if most of the weapons used by terrorist groups are made in USA while made in Russia are the weapons used by the Houthi and Syrian governments, is not our beloved Empire USA about the most evil, criminal and corrupt government under the sun?
What if this is Putin's response to the downing of the Russian jet in Egypt? For peace talks just started between the Houthi government and Saudi Arabia, Putin has about had it with the West using their hired terrorists to destroy Russia's peace process and if these Tochka missiles start exploding in Yemen at the rate of one a week, what then?