A Blog by the Editor of The Middle East Journal

Putting Middle Eastern Events in Cultural and Historical Context

Friday, November 6, 2009

Saudi Campaign Intensifying (in Media at Least)

Tomorrow's headlines in Al-Watan are full of coverage of the campaign — now noticeably characterized as "by air and land" — against the Houthis. For English readers, here's an Arab News article. The Saudi media, at least, seems to be at war. Saudi Gazette ran the (file?) photo showing heavy field artillery I've reproduced here.

At this point I think I'm going to limit my comments to a few observations:
  • I cannot recall any time since the invasion of Kuwait and subsequent Desert Storm in which the Saudi media has seemed so militant.
  • Although the media continue to insist they have only conducted airstrikes inside Saudi territory, the talk about an "air and land" campaign to "secure the borders" could leave open a certain possibility of hot-pursuit; and if they're actually using those field pieces in the picture (105mm or above towed howitzers, I think) they can shell well inside Yemen (11 or more kilometers?) from the border.
  • As a commenter noted on my earlier post, there have been many reports emphasizing the alleged Iranian involvement with the Houthis; the anti-Iranian drumbeat deserves attention.
On that note, unless something major demands my attention, I'm gone for the weekend.

No comments: