All Eyes on Somaliland: The Tiny African State That’s Key to Israel’s War on Houthi Terror

[Deeq A.]

On the night of July 19, a drone swooped down over Tel Aviv’s beaches, killing Evgeny Freder in his sleep not far from the U.S. embassy building. Israel’s defense establishment was caught with its pants down – nobody thought that a small, slow, lugubrious aircraft, launched over 2,000 kilometers (1,200 miles) away, from Yemen, would be able to evade Israel’s advanced air defense systems, fly around Tel Aviv, kill one person, wound 10 others and cause panic.

The attack demonstrated the operational capabilities of Yemen’s Houthis who, ever since the Arab Spring, have become a well-financed and well-armed proxy for Iran in its conflicts with Saudi Arabia and Israel. It also forced Israel’s defense establishment – which until then had left the U.S. and Britain to come up with a military response to the Houthis – to realize that Israel must find its own solutions to defeat the Yemeni threat.

Israel also realized it will not be able to send its fighter jets on long, expensive raids on Yemen every time a $20,000 Houthi drone explodes inside the country – especially given that the Houthis are believed to have one of the world’s largest stockpiles of drones. Therefore, Israel has had to seek out more efficient alternatives.

In the late 19th century, Britain and Italy gained control on the Somali sphere, setting up British Somaliland – which corresponds to modern-day Somaliland – as a protectorate.

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Qaran News