A piece published on The Atlantic magazine’s news website suggested that Yemeni Ansar Allah leader Sayyed Abdul-Malik al-Houthi “may now be the most popular public figure in the Middle East.”
The piece pointed out that since the Yemeni Armed Forces began their operations in the Red Sea in November in support of the Palestinian people, Sayyed al-Houthi “has been treated like a latter-day Che Guevara, his portrait and speeches shared on social media across five continents.”
It emphasized that although it remains challenging to assess the consequences of the attacks, the Yemeni operations created a gap in the global economy.
The operations, according to the piece, turned the Yemeni Ansar Allah movement into “heroes for Arab and Muslim youths who embrace the Palestinian cause,” and even influenced Western progressives.
Elsewhere, the piece indicated that the US-British aggression did not deter the Yemeni Armed Forces, adding that “since staking claim to the Palestinian cause,” the Yemeni forces “have come to seem unstoppable.”
US fails in repelling Yemeni operations due lack of intel: FT
In a related context, the Financial Times reported, citing current and former American officials, that the reason why the US military has been failing at stopping Yemen’s operations in the Red Sea is the lack of intelligence about Yemen’s arsenal and full capabilities.
Even though the Pentagon claims that Yemen’s military tactics and capabilities have been destroyed following weeks of missile strikes against it, forcing the Yemenis to change tactics, damage data remains unclear because the US did not have enough assessment of the country’s capabilities before launching its strikes, let alone measuring the damage inflicted on them.
The Pentagon’s top official on the Middle East, Dan Shapiro, told a congressional hearing last week that despite the US having “a good sense” of what it targeted, it did not “fully know the denominator.”
Shapiro’s remarks in public mirror much of the concern expressed by senior US officials in private regarding the lack of intelligence and the ability to paint a full picture, which is hindering the Pentagon’s assessment of what Yemen’s capabilities truly are.
For an extended period, the resourceful Ansar Allah proved adept at troubling American allies in the Middle East to the extent that Pentagon strategists began emulating some of their tactics. That’s the take offered by Helene Cooper, a Pentagon correspondent for The New York Times, and Eric Schmitt, a national security correspondent for The New York Times.
Highlighting Ansar Allah’s success in repurposing readily available commercial radar systems from boating stores and enhancing their portability, a senior US commander tasked Marines with devising a comparable solution. By September 2022, Marines in the Baltic Sea were implementing mobile radar systems inspired by the ingenuity of Ansar Allah.
read more: Yemeni Armed Forces Strike Israeli ship “MSC SKY”
source: AlMayadeen
