🇾🇪❌🇾🇪🇸🇦 — Saudi-backed forces in Yemen reportedly had some battalions composed of nearly 80% “ghost soldiers,” fake troops that existed solely on paper to collect salaries, says CNN
➡️ Saudi Arabia flew not a single airstrike during the advance despite minute-by-minute updates, while CENTCOM told Yemeni commanders pleading for air cover that it was "watching the situation closely and that Saudi air support was coming." It never came, Mocha fell within the day, and Perim Island the next.
“The Houthis committed everything they had – waves upon waves of fighters … along with their available ballistic missiles and weapons,” a senior Yemeni source attached to their military forces told CNN. The source said he contacted the United States Central Command (CENTCOM) and was assured the US was “watching the situation closely and that Saudi air support was coming.”
“But the air support never came,” the source said. “And Mocha has now fallen.”
👻 Houthi fighters arrived in Mocha on Thursday to find Yemeni battalions that were severely depleted – their rosters were filled with “ghost names” receiving salaries, and the actual strength of the army was only about 20% of what it was on paper, a Western source with knowledge of the operations told CNN.
🇦🇪 That was compounded by the fact that the United Arab Emirates – once a member of the Saudi-led coalition in Yemen – withdrew its remaining forces from the country in January, after Saudi Arabia called for them to leave amid a dispute. And Saudi Arabia did not backfill those troop barracks and bases.
🤬 "A Saudi-American f**k up of epic proportions," a regional source says, calling it "a disaster made in Washington DC and Riyadh," adding that "the failure this time is not with the Yemenis" and that there is no united command and control in Yemen.
📞 The two calls MBS made to Trump asking for US strikes came on the same day the Saudi air force didn't fly.
➡️ Saudi Arabia flew not a single airstrike during the advance despite minute-by-minute updates, while CENTCOM told Yemeni commanders pleading for air cover that it was "watching the situation closely and that Saudi air support was coming." It never came, Mocha fell within the day, and Perim Island the next.
“The Houthis committed everything they had – waves upon waves of fighters … along with their available ballistic missiles and weapons,” a senior Yemeni source attached to their military forces told CNN. The source said he contacted the United States Central Command (CENTCOM) and was assured the US was “watching the situation closely and that Saudi air support was coming.”
“But the air support never came,” the source said. “And Mocha has now fallen.”
👻 Houthi fighters arrived in Mocha on Thursday to find Yemeni battalions that were severely depleted – their rosters were filled with “ghost names” receiving salaries, and the actual strength of the army was only about 20% of what it was on paper, a Western source with knowledge of the operations told CNN.
🇦🇪 That was compounded by the fact that the United Arab Emirates – once a member of the Saudi-led coalition in Yemen – withdrew its remaining forces from the country in January, after Saudi Arabia called for them to leave amid a dispute. And Saudi Arabia did not backfill those troop barracks and bases.
🤬 "A Saudi-American f**k up of epic proportions," a regional source says, calling it "a disaster made in Washington DC and Riyadh," adding that "the failure this time is not with the Yemenis" and that there is no united command and control in Yemen.
📞 The two calls MBS made to Trump asking for US strikes came on the same day the Saudi air force didn't fly.