Arab coalition kills foreign missile experts in Yemen

Two foreign missile experts who had been working with Yemen's Houthis (Ansarallah) were killed Tuesday night (May 1st) in Arab coalition airstrikes targeting a Houthi operations room north of Saada, Yemen’s military said.

"The army monitored the targeting of a Houthi operations room in the centre of Baqem district," the Ministry of Defence said.

"Two missile experts -- an Iranian and a Lebanese -- were killed in the airstrikes," it said.

"The real success is the targeting of experts, or more precisely having access to information that enables the coalition to target them," Abaad Centre for Strategic Studies head Abdul Salam Mohammed told Al-Mashareq.

"This indicates two things," he said: "Either the Houthis have become more confused in their movements, or the coalition has become more capable of penetrating their ranks."

"The presence of Iranian and Hizbullah experts is nothing new, as there is a clear admission of an advisory role played by Iran and Hizbullah in Yemen in support of the Houthis," he noted.

The increased death toll among missile experts indicates that Iran, through the Houthis, is determined to take the battle to a new level, which depends on using missiles against the Saudi-led coalition, he added.

"It appears they have got a missile upgrade that can reach the depth of Saudi Arabia," he said.

"For the time being, the coalition can only launch pre-emptive strikes against the launch pads which missiles are expected to be fired from, and target experts related to the missile project," he said.

"This is what has exactly happened," he added, referring to the Tuesday strike.