What's up with Yemen?

[Bengalzona]

(02-20-2019, 02:59 PM)Dill Wrote: You could argue that the US had a national interest in Yemen over the last decade--to prevent it from becoming a broken state and new haven for Al Qaeda. Also U.S. citizen Anwar Al Awlaki was there fomenting domestic terrorism in the U.S.

Prior to the Civil War, Yemen was one of our partners in the War Against Terror according to the Bush admin. They were very helpful in helping us find targets (who were conveniently in their backyard) during 'drone hunting' season.

Quote:But you have flagged something VERY interesting here -- those U.S. weapons shipped to Yemen turning up in Syria.


They didn't walk there.

If US weapons are going to Sunni in Yemen who are sharing them with relatives in AQY and/or they are often recoverable by ISIS or--a new precedent--ISIS is deploying forces in coordination with our "ally" SA, and receiving weapons from them, that's some pretty big news.

I guess there are myriad ways U.S. weapons could be drifting into Syria, so the question I have regards quantity. Are we talking about a few random M-4s picked up on the battlefield, or dozens or hundreds which arrived in unopened crates? That would mean complicity of at least some governments.

Yes. ISIL is well known for their battlefield scroungery. About 1/3 of the weapons we captured/recaptured from them were supplied to Middle East countries from Western nations, mostly from us. Fortunately (or unfortunately for some) they were easily traceable through their serial numbers (even Russian-designed weapons we had specially made for export in East Europe and stuck our serial numbers on them). Most were captured from the Iraqis when their patented tactic of throwing away all their weapons and fleeing from the 'mean guys' failed to impress ISIL. These included just about everything you could name, including M-1 tanks. Other weapons were either seized or were given to ISIL by Syrian rebel groups in Syria. These ranged from AK's to anti-tank rockets.

The group of weapons I'm talking about are stuff we sent to our Saudi buddies for use against Houthi rebels in Yemen. They include small arms, but also aerial bombs and rockets. To be sure, it was a small amount of the overall packages we sent to the Saudis. So, it doesn't appear to a be a Saudi government operation. More likely, independent Saudi commanders with a strong Wahhabi bent.