• The_v@lemmy.world
    5·
    5 hours ago

    I got curious about the Houthis and found few things interesting.

    They control the region where around 80% of the population of yemen lives - about 34 million people.

    Saudi Arabia has around 35 million people in the country.

    Houthis have around 500,000 active military (plus lots of fighting experience) and another 1 million that they have put through training recently. They also have developed some pretty strong drone and missile capabilities from Iranian assistance. I also suspect Russia has been finding a way to sneak in some tech they have learned in Ukraine to them as well (Wagner group etc).

    Saudi has around 250,000 active military mostly reliant on U.S. tech that has taken a severe beating recently from Iran.

    If it comes to full out war, the Houthis on paper potentially can beat the shit out of them. This is no small fringe group. Its a small nation.