...
Although it still is remotely feasible the Houthis might have gotten it together to send in drones that hit from the northwest, nobody seems very convinced of that. Not even me, and I'd love for them to have muscled up and done the bopping. Not like the Saudis haven't caused them EXTREME misery.
I saw earlier on Moon of Alabama that the missiles struck from the west and have been trying to verify that tonight. The imagery does definitely show impacts from a northwesterly direction... a couple of them seeming more westerly, but mostly northwesterly.
From the NPR piece:
The impacts on the site were made by objects coming from the west or northwestAnd Iran is northEAST, no matter what jackass Maliki makes of it.
Satellite images show that storage tanks at Abqaiq were struck from a northwest direction, Maliki says. He also claims that debris from three cruise missiles that failed to reach Abqaiq were recovered from north of the site. The trajectories suggest the missiles were launched from Iran or Iraq.
Frank Pabian, a longtime imagery analyst, says the impacts look like they may have struck from the west.
Regardless, Hinz says, the direction of the impact doesn't necessarily indicate the launch point. Both cruise missiles and drones can take circuitous routes to their targets.
Still, says Hinz, "If we talk about the general balance of probability, it's much more likely they came from the north."
And Yemen is to the south.
Still, not as squirrelly as the coverage on the NYT.
Where the strikesI think that was a purposeful typo. Don't look so shocked. Despite the fact that they produced a map with a completely misleading identification of the targeted sites, the vast majority of their readers have no idea where all these countries are in relation to each other and only a few of them would bother to look on a map.
originated remains unclear
Administration officials have not publicly said where they believe the attack originated from. They did say that the satellite imagery was consistent with strikes from the north or northwest, which would point to an attack coming from the direction of Iran or Iraq, rather than from Yemen.
If you assume a straightish trajectory between shooter and shot, you immediately see Western Iraq, Jordan, Israel, Lebanon, Syria or even Turkey are all more likely than Iran or Yemen. If you want to assume either of those countries did it, you have to put the shit up into the air and then make it do some sharp turns to get it to come in from the northwest.
Your own eyes will tell you that's the direction the missiles were coming from when they hit.
It is perfectly clear that mainstream media are ONLY here to confuse and mislead and propagandize us, but the blast patterns and holes in tanks and cardinal directions they can't exactly fudge.
pipe up any time....
