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Opmerkelijk en niet ongeloofwaardig verhaal

Zo'n twee maanden hamerde de Amerikaanse marine de Houthi's de grond in, maar volgens de New York Times vond Trump de resultaten onvoldoende, schoten de Houthi's zeven [_langzame, zichtbare, 1994_] MQ-9 Predator drones uit de lucht, binnen 10 dagen vielen maar liefst twee F-18s van boord, en bovenal liepen straaljager piloten een hoog risico neergeschoten en gevangengenomen te worden. NYT tekent het verslag als volgt op:

"In those first 30 days, the Houthis shot down seven American MQ-9 drones (around $30 million each), hampering Central Command’s ability to track and strike the militant group. Several American F-16s and an F-35 fighter jet were nearly struck by Houthi air defenses, making real the possibility of American casualties, multiple U.S. officials said. (...) The cost of the operation was staggering. The Pentagon had deployed two aircraft carriers, additional B-2 bombers and fighter jets, as well as Patriot and THAAD air defenses, to the Middle East, officials acknowledged privately.

By the end of the first 30 days of the campaign, the cost had exceeded $1 billion, the officials said. So many precision munitions were being used, especially advanced long-range ones, that some Pentagon contingency planners were growing increasingly concerned about overall stocks and the implications for any situation in which the United States might have to ward off an attempted invasion of Taiwan by China. And through it all, the Houthis were still shooting at vessels and drones, fortifying their bunkers and moving weapons stockpiles underground. (...) The intelligence community said that there was “some degradation” of Houthi capability, but argued that the group could easily reconstitute, officials said."

Aan Nederlandse OSINT-dame @VleckieHond heeft het in ieder geval niet gelegen!