Warning up front – we don’t speak Arabic, we make no warranties about the authenticity of this video, real or implied. Granted, it’s not the irhabist version of the old MagPul videos but it’s interesting to watch and potentially instructive.
Plus, it has a banging soundtrack.
So, we see a couple takeaways and would be interested to hear yours. We’ve heard various descriptions of the groups involved, including ISIL (which is probably just because that’s the acronym on everyone’s mind lately), AQAP and even Quds Force. To be honest, for our purposes it really doesn’t matter – it’s the lessons we need to pay attention to.
·They conducted rehearsals (or at least one), though tactics were poor and they muzzled each other a lot.
·Though assaulters stayed mostly, roughly on line in proper yataghan waving saracen horde fashion, they did clear small structures (frag and follow).
(Grunts: yataghan)
·The guys that were hit had no security posted, neither perimeter nor close in.
·The guys that were hit did not appear to have anything more capable of a mobility kill than their rifles, unless they just didn’t have time to get to them.
·The guys making the assault did not appear to be carrying anything heavy either, nor does it look like they had more then one vehicle for the assault (boy a flat tire sure would have een embarrassing on the way in, eh?) Was this because they didn’t have any heavy weapons, we just didn’t see it, or because they’d conducted a good recce and knew they wouldn’t need anything? Why not drive in two trucks, or three, and cross load?
·Speed, surprise and violence of action worked, and volume of fire compensated for lack of marksmanship.
·A designated marksman or a gun up by the cameraman would have made for a great position to support by fire; whether there was one up there is unknown but there didn’t appear to be.
·The assaulters had a contingency plan for friendly casualties.
·At least a couple of them had some awesome shoes.
What else do you see in there worth noting? What’s it worth professionally, “downrange” and here on the street as LEOs or in an urban area during unrest.
Let’s hear what you have to say.
MD
All bearded Arabs/Persians probably look the same to you yankee boys, but that picture in the wallet is absolutely clearly a photo of Hasan Nasrallah. The head honcho of the Lebanese shia militia Hezbollah.
Looks like they did what they needed to do. They had rehearsals, they had a medevac platform with some supplies. And everybody that needed to die, died. Not a bad raid. I mean you can nit pick all day long, but I’ve been there with boogers who have had a hell of a lot more training that didn’t do it that well. Of course the weak security posture of the camp. helped a lot. And I’m sure there recce only encouraged the raid to go down. Not bad.
If you look closely at their approach on the way to their target. They used cut up barrels to disguise their approach across the open terrain. If the “Houthi” did have security they would have only seen a truck with barrels and probably thought it was a resupply. Clever but they were lucky no one was on the high ground watching them.
They did a GREAT job!!! No change! Sweet kicks!
Just a thought. This could have been a staged attack with an overwhelming victory to be used as a recruiting tool. The “enemy” could have been their own guys, new recruits that didn’t cut it in training or individuals under punishment for some infraction. The didn’t react to the pick up approaching perhaps because it was a known friendly vehicle. It could have been a live fire OPFOR training exercise without the other team knowing that lead tipped blanks were being used. Just a thought. Propaganda for recruiting is invaluable during insurgency operations. Why kill a million when you can kill one idea. Hope.
Nothing too significant, but it looked like they were using half a plastic barrel, holding it up for concealment in the bed of the pickup. It’s only speculation, but maybe everyone was holding half a barrel up to look like some kind of shipment of something? Kind of like a Trojan Horse? Perhaps the attacked camp was expecting some kind of shipment in barrels?
They didn’t think about 5 25 s before the assault, also they’re not using any kind of radio equipment also they flanked in a open spread pattern leaving more than one soldier to defend himself , the camp that they attacked didn’t have a ready awareness plan or defense plan they ran
Cbt Engr O here. I speak fluent arabic. This is recorded in Northern Yemen, Al Qaeda (Sunni) attacked a Houthi Militia (Shia) outpost. (Proof: at 2:59 they call over the camera guy saying “look at this Houthi scum”, and pulls out the guys wallet to find a picture of Ayatollah Seyyed Ali Khamenei on the cover. Prominent Shia Cleric.)
Tactics are hell of a lot more organized than what I’m used to seeing out of that region. Still a lot of hip firing and not aiming down the sights but they seemed to have a good effect on targets. I agree with pretty much every point John has raised in the previous comment.
Yep, Don’t have the language skills but pic of the Ayatollah Khamenei tells us the defenders (not exactly a literal term in this case) were Shia. The pic of the guy in the Red Beret was most definitely in a Iranian Revolutionary Guards uniform, which may be why some think it’s Quds. They are somewhat responsible for operations outside of Iran.
Yeah, the only reason I can say they were 100% Houthi is because they keep saying it between 2:55-3:01. Direct translation is:
1st male: “look at the houthi scum”
All 3 males repeatedly: “god curse them”
Camera operator opens wallet: “proof that he is houthi, has poetry written in it, his name is Abd Ali”
Houthi are primarily funded by Iran. Also, if they were Quds you’d think they would be a little bit more prepared and equipped than that.
Yeah, I’m not convinced they were Quds. They have a fairly good reputation and the shootees looked pretty “tribal” to me. I don’t have much “current” info on the subject but what I know from the past is it was very common for Shia “tribesman” from all over the Muslim world, to come to Iran for military training. The individual pictured would have been very proud of that, it would have given him some status… However, the Iranians had about as much luck as the US in Training these guys.
They brought stretchers, IV bags, and had better first aid skills than any of the Iraqi police or military I worked with. They were smart enough to look for objects of intelligence value after seizing control. I didn’t see any effort to consolidate their position, and individual assignments appear to be vague or absent. They were pretty good at not dumping mags on full auto, as is so fashionable in that part of the globe. Their simple tactics do not require a lot of skill or practice, especially against such a soft target, ergo we will likely see them employed at a shopping mall or similarly crowded environment at home soon. Unless they hire Mexican cartels who are better trained
Glad someone noticed his sweet kicks!
Glad someone had enough sense to mention their sweet kicks.