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posted by martyb on Tuesday October 11 2016, @01:42AM   Printer-friendly
from the oh-shoot dept.

Submitted via IRC for TheMightyBuzzard

Saudi military base also targeted by missile fired deep inside the kingdom near holy city of Mecca.

Source: http://www.aljazeera.com/news/2016/10/navy-ship-targeted-missile-attack-yemen-161010034052132.html

A US Navy destroyer has been targeted in a failed missile attack from territory in Yemen controlled by Houthi rebels, a US military spokesman says.

In another attack, a ballistic missile launched from Yemen targeted a Saudi airbase near the Muslim holy city of Mecca, Saudi and rebel media reported Monday, the deepest strike yet into the kingdom by the rebels and their allies.

Two missiles failed to hit the US Navy ship after being launched on Sunday, Pentagon spokesman Captain Jeff Davis told Reuters news agency.

"USS Mason detected two inbound missiles over a 60-minute period while in the Red Sea off the coast of Yemen. Both missiles impacted the water before reaching the ship," he said. "There were no injuries to our sailors and no damage to the ship."

Lieutenant Ian McConnaughey, a Navy spokesman, said on Monday that it was unclear if the Mason was specifically targeted, though the missiles were fired in its direction.

The destroyer at the time of the missile fire was north of the Bab al-Mandeb Strait, which serves as a gateway for oil tankers headed to Europe through the Suez Canal, a defence official said.

[...] On Monday, Saudi state television broadcast a brief clip of what appeared to be a projectile landing in Taif and the flash of an explosion, followed by images of emergency vehicles.

Taif is home to Saudi Arabia's King Fahad Air Base, which hosts US military personnel training the kingdom's armed forces.

The Saudi military said the missile fired late on Saturday caused no damage. The US military's Central Command, which oversees troops in the Middle East, did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Al-Masirah, a satellite news channel run by the Houthis, identified the missile as a local variant of a Soviet-era Scud missile. It said the Volcano-1 missile targeted the airbase.


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  • (Score: 2) by LoRdTAW on Tuesday October 11 2016, @11:33AM

    by LoRdTAW (3755) on Tuesday October 11 2016, @11:33AM (#412898) Journal

    ...but this is basically a civil war along Sunni/Shia boundaries.

    Ah. So they are fighting over which version of their fairy tail is the better version.

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  • (Score: 4, Informative) by Arik on Tuesday October 11 2016, @01:40PM

    by Arik (4543) on Tuesday October 11 2016, @01:40PM (#412927) Journal
    It looks like that at a glance but it's not all that accurate.

    It's kind of like Northern Ireland, the combatants are mostly identified with religions but what they are actually fighting over isn't religious as much as national at root. The locals in much of Yemen are Zaydis, have been for centuries, but religion only became an issue relatively recently, with the importation of Saudi Wahhabism and eventually Al Qaeda. One of the responses this has triggered is a heightened interest in religion and increase in religiosity among the Houthi.
    --
    If laughter is the best medicine, who are the best doctors?
    • (Score: 2) by BK on Tuesday October 11 2016, @04:57PM

      by BK (4868) on Tuesday October 11 2016, @04:57PM (#412995)

      Ok... Help me out. What is a Zaydi and how will I know if I meet one?

      --
      ...but you HAVE heard of me.
      • (Score: 2) by Arik on Tuesday October 11 2016, @06:02PM

        by Arik (4543) on Tuesday October 11 2016, @06:02PM (#413032) Journal
        Just as the Shia and Sunni split over Ali, the Zaydis and the rest of the Shia split over his grandson, Zayd ibn Ali. If you can't tell the difference between a Sunni and a Shia you just met you probably wouldn't tell a Zaydi from either of them.
        --
        If laughter is the best medicine, who are the best doctors?
      • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday October 11 2016, @09:34PM

        by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday October 11 2016, @09:34PM (#413129)

        Islam is far more diverse than Christianity. There are hundreds of different sects within the broad umbrella. All it really takes to be muslim is to practice the five pillars of faith. Everything else is up for debate. One effect of being such a broad and inclusive religion is that it is considered a big insult to accuse someone of not being a real muslim. Nevertheless it still happens a lot (the ISIS types do it all the time because they are assholes) and you'll occasionally hear it between Iran and Saudi when things get really tense between the two countries.

        Zaydis are just one of the many sects.

        • (Score: 2) by BK on Sunday October 16 2016, @03:37AM

          by BK (4868) on Sunday October 16 2016, @03:37AM (#414766)

          But how diverse is it compared to buddhism? Since you wish to provide comparative context, I need context that is relevant to me and not other groups. Can you be a real muslim if you believe that raping 9 year olds [usc.edu] is evil?

          --
          ...but you HAVE heard of me.
  • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday October 11 2016, @02:49PM

    by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday October 11 2016, @02:49PM (#412949)

    > So they are fighting over which version of their fairy tail is the better version

    No. And religion is never the cause of war, at most it is just the uniform that the sides wear.
    But understanding that takes effort. Easier to blame the uniforms.