HOUTHIS SAY THEY SHOT DOWN A SAUDI F-15 WITH A HOMEMADE MISSILE

The Houthis posted video Wednesday of what they say is a Saudi F-15 they knocked out of the sky over Marib. Their statement says the US-built jet was downed by a locally manufactured surface-to-air missile while it was running operations over Marib Governorate. The clip has an animated missile hitting a jet, fighters picking through desert wreckage, and a tailfin bearing a Saudi flag and the number 5539 hoisted up for the camera. CNN geolocated the crash site to Marib, after the BBC got there first. CNN's military analyst Cedric Leighton, a retired US Air Force colonel, said the tail markings were "consistent" with Saudi F-15SA jets. Riyadh's response has been a wall of nothing. Saudi authorities and the Arab Coalition leadership have not confirmed or refuted the shootdown. Nobody has said what happened to the two aircrew, and the Houthis never mentioned them. If it holds up, it would be only the second time hostile fire has brought down one of these jets. The jet is the sideshow. Marib is the last anti-Houthi stronghold in northern Yemen and sits on the country's biggest oil and gas fields. Last week the Houthis grabbed a Red Sea port city and an island near the waterway that had been serving as the backup route for Saudi oil exports. Houthi spokesman Yahya Saree also claims the Saudis ran 450 strikes. The Saudis, again, say nothing.

Why you should give a shit: Marib holds Yemen's largest oil and gas fields and, per 2023 IOM figures, most of the country's 2.8 million displaced people, so the jet is the least important thing that got shot at this month.