05 Nov 17. Saudi-led coalition calls missile ‘dangerous escalation’ of Yemen conflict. A Saudi-led coalition accused Yemen’s Houthi militia of a “dangerous escalation” on Sunday after Saudi air defence forces intercepted a ballistic missile fired towards Riyadh.
Saudi Arabia also announced financial rewards for information leading to the arrest of 40 leaders it said were responsible for “planning, implementing and supporting the Houthi terrorist group’s various terrorist activities”.
The bounties topped out at $30m for the armed group’s leader, Abdel-Malek al-Houthi, the state news agency reported.
The missile was brought down on Saturday evening near King Khaled International Airport on the northern outskirts of the capital and did not cause any casualties.
“The Houthis’ dangerous escalation came because of Iranian support,” coalition spokesman Colonel Turki al-Maliki said in a televised news conference. Rocket launch vehicles used to fire the missile were made in Iran, he added.
Saudi Arabia and its allies accuse arch-foe Iran of supplying missiles and other weapons to the Houthis, saying the arms were not present in Yemen before the conflict began in 2015. Iran denies the charges and blames the conflict on Riyadh.
Yemen’s civil war pits the internationally recognised government, backed by Saudi Arabia and its allies, against the Houthis and forces loyal to former president Ali Abdullah Saleh.
The war has already killed more than 10,000 and displaced millions, with around 500,000 cholera cases reported in the country since the worst outbreak in decades started in April.
The Saudi-led coalition’s statement on Sunday echoed accusations by U.S. President Donald Trump, who described the missile as “a shot just taken by Iran” against Saudi Arabia. The head of Iran’s Revolutionary Guard Corps dismissed Trump’s comments as slander.
French Foreign Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian said on Sunday the missile launch by Houthi rebels showed there was a danger of ballistic proliferation across the region.
Saudi Arabia has signalled its intention to buy separate air defence systems from the United States and Russia. (Source: Reuters)
05 Nov 17. Joint Chiefs say invasion ‘only way’ to totally disarm N Korea. A Pentagon assessment has declared the only way to completely destroy all parts of North Korea’s nuclear weapons programme is through a ground invasion. Rear Admiral Michael Dumont expressed the opinion on behalf of the Joint Chiefs of Staff in a letter to Congressman Ted Lieu.
Mr Dumont said calculating “even the roughest” potential casualty figures would be extremely difficult.
He also gave some detail on what the first hours of a war would involve.
“The only way to ‘locate and destroy – with complete certainty – all components of North Korea’s nuclear weapons programs’ is through a ground invasion,” he wrote in response to Congressman Lieu’s questions about a potential conflict.
The risks involved included a potential nuclear counter-attack by North Korea while US forces attempted to disable its “deeply buried, underground facilities”, he said.
“A classified briefing is the best venue for a detailed discussion,” he added.
The Joint Chiefs of Staff directly advise the president of the United States on military matters.
The president has previously said that if forced to defend the US or its allies, he “will have no choice but to totally destroy North Korea.”
“The President needs to stop making provocative statements that hinder diplomatic options and put American troops further at risk,” Mr Lieu’s joint statement said.
Rear Admiral Dumont opened his letter with a clear indication that his office supported economic and diplomatic solutions ahead of any military action.
Potential casualties from a conflict depended heavily on the intensity of any attack on South Korea’s capital, Seoul, which lies just 35 miles (56 km) from the border, as well as how much advance warning the US and its allies had, he said.
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