Militants shoot down helicopter in Yemen; 8 killed

If it wasn't for the threat, I have to wonder if this would have been big news. Seems the fight between militants and government has been going on for a while in Yemen.

Peace

reply to post by ValentineWiggin

Is presstv reliable?

It's Iran's national news agency.
I am sure if it was a US chopper that was shot down, they would be trumpeting it from the highest hills.

Obama is on The Tonight Show tonight?!?!!?

With enough knowledge you can lay hands on a rocket propelled grenade fairly simply if you have the funds.

Where they got it is Not as big an issue as people seem to think...

Probably had them since dating back to the Russia/Afghan war, what with the US funneling arms to the Taliban during that time in mass.

If it was oil fields connected it was employes of the oil comp.
was it there chopper?

reply to post by jam321


Hmmm, probably not because terrorist attack all the time & no one seems to care. Iraq also had an attack today & if we dig I'm sure other ME nations suffered as well. What has my eye is Al Qaeda using missiles.

reply to post by benrl


That's one theory but ill be keeping an eye out for more details, if any come out cuz so far the Yemen officials are speaking anonymously so who knows if they'll be more info coming from that source.

reply to post by Swills


There was a reported U.S. Drone strike in Yemen...

pair of suspected U.S. drone strikes killed four al Qaeda militants in Yemen as the United States maintained a heightened security alert

www.cnn.com...

So we don't know if the threat is viable (where it might be and date has come and gone to override the "when" question), but decide to go in and kill possible/alleged members of this group? Not even positive they are members and we now know they were guarding oil fields - but what's a few dead people just in case.

reply to post by Swills

The officials say the helicopter was downed by a missile over the al-Qaida stronghold of Wadi Ubida in central Yemen.

hmm, you say there are all contained inside a compound of some sort? That sounds like prime target for the US Air Force. You know i think we have a few platforms that could swing over that compound and take care of this problem fairly easily.

Why wouldn't we is the question. If you can get all your bad guys in a small area you got an opportunity, right?

V

reply to post by Variable


I wouldn't be surprised if that compound has already met the fate of a US drone strike but I'm worried about Al Qaeda having missiles. First they take out choppers but what's next, airplanes? I would love for the CIA to explain to us how they got these missiles but that's all classified and a matter of National Security so we all can go jump into a lake for all they care, or get blown up by a terrorist missile.

Originally posted by Swills
reply to post by Variable

 

I wouldn't be surprised if that compound has already met the fate of a US drone strike but I'm worried about Al Qaeda having missiles. First they take out choppers but what's next, airplanes? I would love for the CIA to explain to us how they got these missiles but that's all classified and a matter of National Security so we all can go jump into a lake for all they care, or get blown up by a terrorist missile.

There have been a half dozen terrorist attacks on civilian airliners over the last decade, such as the 2003 Baghdad DHL attempted shootdown incident and 2002 Mombasa attacks

The CIA famously supplied the Afghani Mujahadeen with Stinger missiles in the 1980's. There have since been ample opportunities for nefarious individuals to acquire MANPAD systems from black market suppliers.

The dissolution of the Soviet Union, the fall of Iraq, Libya and Egypt, the Syrian civil war and unscrupulous arms suppliers in the DPRK, PRC and the Russian Federation have made these types of weapons readily available to anyone with enough cash.

There is even a Vice news episode where the correspondent was taken to see blackmarket MANPADS for sale to the highest bidder, no questions asked somewhere in Sudan.

Remember, the U.S. doesn't have a monopoly on shoulder launched surface to air missile technology. Much of what is out there is Russian and Chinese.

Here is a current report on the topic from Stratfor Weekly...

The Continuing Threat of Libyan Missiles

In March 2011, while many of the arms depots belonging to the government of Libya were being looted, we wrote about how the weapons taken from Libyan government stockpiles could end up being used to fuel violence in the region and beyond.

Since then we have seen Tuareg militants, who were previously employed by the regime of former Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi, leave Libya with sizable stockpiles of weapons and return to their homes in northern Mali, where they have successfully wrested control of the region away from the Malian government.

These Tuareg militants were aided greatly in their battle against the government by the hundreds of light pickup trucks mounted with crew-served heavy weapons that they looted from Libyan depots.

These vehicles, known as "technicals," permitted the Tuareg rebels to outmaneuver and at times outgun the Malian military. Moreover, we have recently received reports that Tuareg rebels also brought back a sizable quantity of SA-7b shoulder fired surface-to-air missiles, also known as man-portable air defense systems (MANPADS).

The Strela 2 family ( SA-7b is derivative) are originally Soviet designed and are currently manufactured in the Russian Federation. They have also been used in numerous airliner attacks over the last three decades...

Airliner attacks

During the Rhodesian Bush War, ZIPRA insurgents used the Strela against unarmed civilian aircraft and brought down two Vickers Viscount passenger aircraft belonging to Air Rhodesia. There was great loss of life in both instances as the flights were returning from Kariba, a well known tourist attraction.

Vickers Viscount, Flight RH825, 3 September 1978—shot by down Strela missile near Kariba Dam. 18 of the 56 passengers survived the crash, but ten of them were murdered on the ground by ZIPRA guerrillas.

Vickers Viscount, Flight RH827, 12 February 1979—shot by down Strela missile near Kariba Dam; all 59 people on board killed.

In the first incident the fighters of ZAPU, ZIPRA, were accused of following up the crashed aircraft and systematically murdering survivors as they lay in the wreckage. The Archbishop of Mashonaland described this act as the most barbaric act of the war in a well publicised sermon that subsequently saw him removed from his post.

UNITA claimed that they used one to shoot down a TAAG Boeing 737-2M2 taking off from Lubango on 8 November 1983.

A Lignes Aériennes Congolaises Boeing 727-30 taking off from Kindu was shot down by a SA-7 fired by rebel forces in 1998, killing all 41 on board.
Two missiles were fired at a Boeing 757 during the 2002 Mombasa attacks. Neither missile struck its target.

Strela 2 Airliner attacks

reply to post by Drunkenparrot


Good post

You're right, the US doesn't monopolize the arms market but reguardless the CIA is well informed whether they're playing arms dealer or not.

Originally posted by butcherguy
I see no mention that it was a US military helicopter.

Another site alludes that it was a Yemeni chopper.
Fox News

The officials say the helicopter was downed by a missile over the Al Qaeda stronghold of Wadi Ubida in central Yemen. The helicopter was flying from the capital Sanaa to the province of Marib, officials said. The passengers were part of a military force guarding oil installations in the province.

Maybe they updated the article since you first saw it but this was in there...

The Yemeni military helicopter was shot down by a missile over the al-Qaida stronghold of Wadi Ubida in central Yemen, officials said.

Originally posted by Swills
reply to post by NotAnAspie

 

Well the question really pertains to when did they get missiles? Was it during the Libyian civil war, Benghazi arms smuggling conspiracy, Syria, Iraq, and so on..

Reach back further. Senator Charlie Wilson brokered the deal to train and arm the Mujadeen in Afghanistan during the 1980s. Do you think they spent all that hardware? Do you think every country we or say Russia has accurate to the numbers of their own supplies?

reply to post by ownbestenemy


Yes that's true but I really do have a hard believing they still have weapons from the 80s, but you never know.

reply to post by Swills


The implication wasn't these are from that era (most weapons have a shelf-life) but rather, we cannot simplistically connect dots that may or may not have any connection. There are a multitude of nations that have a lot -- and I mean a lot -- of arms that are not under the most strictest quality control.

They may have been apart of the alleged gun running operation in Libya or they may be from the local army depot that was paid off to look the other way for a few minutes....