RIYADH – Claims that Yemeni rebels shot down a Saudi warplane havespotlighted the increasingly potent Huthi arsenal — cause for alarm inRiyadh as fighting escalates amid faltering efforts to end the five-yearconflict.
The Iran-aligned Huthi rebels said they downed the Tornado aircraft onFriday over the volatile northern province of Al-Jawf, in a setback for theRiyadh-led military coalition that has always enjoyed air supremacy in theconflict.
The fate of the two Saudi crewmen who ejected from the plane remainsunknown.
The rebels, once dismissed as a ragtag militia, said they hit the jet withan “advanced surface-to-air missile”. The claim followed recent UN reportsthat the Huthis had received weapons bearing signs of Iranian origin.
Tehran has long denied arming the rebels.
Following the crash, a Huthi spokesman said Yemeni airspace was off-limitsand not a “picnic” spot for its enemies.- ADVERTISEMENT –
“This is definitely a cause for alarm for the coalition,” Becca Wasser, apolicy analyst at the US-based RAND Corporation, told AFP.
“They need to plan as though this is the new normal and that the Huthishave the capability to shoot down more aircraft, which is going to affecttheir operations and how they plan their air missions.”
The coalition did not respond to AFP’s request for comment.
– ‘Iranian assistance’ –
Saudi Arabia has long asserted dominance over Yemeni air space. The kingdomhas faced repeated international criticism for its aerial bombing raids inYemen that have often resulted in civilian deaths.
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But the rebels are countering the threat by bolstering their air defencecapabilities, notably with what they call self-made surface-to-air missiles.
“While the Huthis claim a self-produced missile shot down the SaudiTornado, it remains to be seen whether that is truly the case as this hasbeen an area where they have received Iranian assistance,” said Wasser.
Last year, the Huthis claimed to have downed an American drone with arebel-made missile. At the time, the US military said it was probingreports of the incident, which came amid heightened tensions betweenWashington and Iran.
A UN report seen by AFP earlier this month said the rebels obtained newweapons last year with “technical characteristics similar to armsmanufactured in the Islamic Republic of Iran”.
The report compiled by a panel of UN experts did not say whether theweapons were delivered directly by the Iranian government.
But earlier this month, Saudi media said coalition air strikes killed fouroperatives of the Iranian ally Hezbollah, Lebanon’s powerful Shiitemovement, close to the rebel-held capital Sanaa.
The presence of Iran-backed operatives in Yemen likely boosted “Huthipreparedness in combating Saudi Arabia’s aerial activity”, Fatima AboAlasrar, a scholar at the Middle East Institute, told AFP.
“They did not have this capacity five years ago,” she said.
Friday’s events followed fresh clashes in northern Yemen after amonths-long relative lull as the warring parties showed an apparentinterest in de-escalating the conflict. -APP/AFP
