Saudi military filled with cronies, not competent: Analyst

Saudi Arabia’s failure to defend itself against recent retaliatory attacks by Yemeni forces is proof that the Saudi military is in no way competent and just a “fraud,” says an American political analyst.

The remarks by Brian Downing, a US journalist and political commentator, on Press TV came in the wake of audacious attacks on the kingdom’s southern border region of Najran and Aramco oil refining facilities.

“The Saudi military is pretty much a fraud, the house of cards spends a lot of money but it’s not a competent military at all," he told "The Debate" program Saturday night. 

"The Saudi military is filled with cronies. You don’t get to be a colonel or a general by passing professional tests and showing your medal. You get it by being related to someone in the royal family or a friend thereof,” Downing said.

“Furthermore, there are a lot of tribal factions within the Saudi military. They don’t work side by side together very well, they don’t trust one another and that’s going to hurt the unit combat ferocity,” he added.

Yemeni armed forces announced on Saturday that three Saudi military brigades were completely destroyed after they mounted a large-scale military offensive in Najran.

Speaking at a press conference in the capital Sana’a, Brigadier General Yahya Sare'e described the God's Victory operation as the biggest ever since Saudi Arabia and some of its allies embarked an atrocious military campaign on Yemen more than four years ago.

PressTV-‘3 Saudi brigades destroyed in Yemen offensive on Najran’

The spokesman for Yemeni Armed Forces says three Saudi military brigades have been destroyed, and 1000s of Saudi mercs taken hostage in Najran offensive.

Among those captured by Yemeni troops and their Houthi allies were a number of Saudi commanders, officers and soldiers, Sare'e said.

Yemen’s Houthi Ansarullah movement also said in a statement that the operation inflicted dramatic losses – both in terms of military hardware and personnel – upon the enemy.

The operation came less than two weeks after Yemen’s Ansarullah movement and their allies in the Yemeni army deployed as many as 10 drones to bomb the Abqaiq and Khurais oil facilities run by the Saudi state-owned oil company, Aramco.

The unprecedented attack knocked out more than half of the Saudi crude output, or five percent of global supply, prompting Saudi and US officials to claim without any evidence that it probably originated from Iraq or Iran.

In his remarks, Downing ruled out the possibility of the US intervention in a war between Saudi Arabia and Yemeni forces after more than four and a half years of failure.

“The American generals don’t want another war in the Middle East; they are bogged down in Syria, Iraq and Afghanistan; they have advisers here and there in the region. I don’t think they want it [the war],” the American commentator said.

Scott Rickard, former American intelligence linguist, was the other panelist on the program and said Yemen’s retaliatory attacks on the Saudis came as a shock to the kingdom in Riyadh since they had up until that time “underestimated” the capacity of the Yemeni forces.

“Obviously, everyone underestimated the Houthi forces as well as the Ansarullah; these forces have shown incredible vigilance,” Rickard said.

Saudi Arabia and a number of its regional allies launched a devastating campaign against Yemen in March 2015, with the goal of bringing the government of Hadi back to power and crushing Ansarullah.

PressTV-US-made bombs used in Saudi strikes on Yemen: Amnesty

Amnesty International says precision-guided bombs made by the United States have been used in Saudi-led deadly airstrikes against civilians in Yemen.

The US-based Armed Conflict Location and Event Data Project (ACLED), a nonprofit conflict-research organization, estimates that the war has claimed more than 91,000  lives over the past four and a half years.

The war has also taken a heavy toll on the country’s infrastructure, destroying hospitals, schools, and factories. The UN says over 24 million Yemenis are in dire need of humanitarian aid, including 10 million suffering from extreme levels of hunger.

Press TV’s website can also be accessed at the following alternate addresses:

www.presstv.co.uk