this post was submitted on 17 Oct 2024
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The United States military has bombed a series of targets in areas of Yemen controlled by the Iran-aligned Houthi group, the US defence chief has said.

US Air Force B-2 stealth bombers conducted “precision strikes” against five underground weapons storage locations, Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin said on Wednesday.

The Houthis’ Al Masirah TV satellite news channel reported air strikes around Yemen’s capital, Sanaa, which the group has held since 2014, and around its stronghold of Saada. It provided no immediate information on damage or casualties.

The latest bombing raids come a day after the United Nations special envoy for Yemen, Hans Grundberg, warned that the country was at risk of being dragged further into the military escalation in the Middle East.

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[–] PolandIsAStateOfMind@lemmy.ml 17 points 3 weeks ago
[–] Nakoichi@hexbear.net 17 points 3 weeks ago* (last edited 3 weeks ago)

Would be so fuckin funny if one of those gets shot down. Pretty sure they cost like a billion dollars each.

Just checked, it's actually $2 billion each

[–] dessalines@lemmy.ml 15 points 3 weeks ago

This is the US starting an undeclared war against Yemen to defend Israel. Even with south africa, the US supported that apartheid state more discretely. What's gonna happen when Israel falls just like SA?

[–] FelixCress@lemmy.world 12 points 3 weeks ago (2 children)

US bombs other countries - good. Someone flies into US buildings - bad.

Got it.

[–] timewarp@lemmy.world 10 points 3 weeks ago* (last edited 3 weeks ago)

But our imperialist country can do no wrong. We're the good guys liberating other countries like when we liberated America from the Natives. /s

[–] HK65@sopuli.xyz 4 points 3 weeks ago (2 children)

Isn't this literally what happened in 42? Japan got fed up with the US interfering with its trade, and launched airstrikes against military targets in Hawaii?

[–] anachronist@midwest.social 4 points 3 weeks ago

Japan got fed up with the US interfering with its trade

This is cracked. US embargoed exports of oil to Japan. Japan got most of its oil from the US. Japan decided to invade Indonesia (Dutch East Indies at the time) to get oil, but the US signaled that they'd be very cross if that happened so Japan decided to preemptively hit the US fleet and invade the then-US possession of the Philippines to open the way to DEI.

[–] GarbageShootAlt2@lemmy.ml 1 points 3 weeks ago (1 children)

I'd hesitate to be too smol bean Japan about it considering they were brutalizing East Asia systematically at the time.

[–] HK65@sopuli.xyz 2 points 3 weeks ago

Just as the US/Israel are brutalizing the Middle East. That's the point.

[–] bruhbeans@lemmy.ml 8 points 3 weeks ago (1 children)

That plane has really strong "are we the baddies" vibes

[–] Keeponstalin@lemmy.world 6 points 3 weeks ago

Turns out Yemen has been undergoing a US-Saudi backed genocide for years. Had no clue until recently

Quotes

Guterres put the crisis in stark perspective, emphasizing the near complete lack of security for the Yemeni people. More than 22 million people out of a total population of 28 million are in need of humanitarian aid and protection. Eighteen million people lack reliable access to food; 8.4 million people “do not know how they will obtain their next meal.”

Besides Saudi Arabia, the coalition attacking Yemen includes the United Arab Emirates, Egypt, Morocco, Jordan, Sudan, Kuwait and Bahrain. Qatar was part of the coalition but is no longer.

Based on the information available to it using open sources, YDP reports that two-thirds of the coalition’s bombing attacks have been against non-military and unknown targets. The coalition isn’t accidentally attacking civilians and civilian infrastructure – it’s doing it deliberately.

The air and naval blockade, in effect since March 2015, “is essentially using the threat of starvation as a bargaining tool and an instrument of war,” according to the UN panel of experts on Yemen.

The coalition’s genocide in Yemen would not be possible without the complicity of the U.S. This has been a bipartisan presidential effort, covering both the Obama and Trump administrations.

U.S. arms are being used to kill Yemenis and destroy their country. In 2016, well after the coalition began its genocidal assault on Yemen, four of the top five recipients of U.S. arms sales were members of the coalition.

The U.S. has also provided the coalition with logistical support, including mid-air refueling, targeting advice and support, intelligence, expedited munitions resupply and maintenance.

As of February 2018, according to the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights, the coalition had killed 6,000 people in airstrikes and wounded nearly 10,000 more.

Yet, according to the OHCHR report, these counts are conservative. Tens of thousands of Yemenis have also died from causes related to the war. According to Save the Children, an estimated 85,000 children under five may have died since 2015, with more than 50,000 child deaths in 2017 alone from hunger and related causes.

US complicity in the Saudi-led genocide in Yemen spans Obama, Trump administrations

[–] RedWizard@hexbear.net 5 points 3 weeks ago

Man, our enemies sure love keeping stuff underground.

[–] Barzaria@lemmy.dbzer0.com 1 points 3 weeks ago (1 children)

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Northrop_Grumman_X-47B Software from this project, I suspect, is being used to autonomously pilot these planes. I think this is an automated drone strike.

[–] JillyB@beehaw.org 2 points 3 weeks ago

Not a chance. The B2 is a manned platform. It's also quite an old one which would require a huge program to create an autonomous capability. The B2's successor (the B21) is coming soonish so such a program would have no support. Right now, autonomous military aircraft are mostly being considered for support roles like tankers with future projects of "loyal wingman" fighters to fly alongside a manned fighter. A deep, precision strike from an untested technology would never fly.