On November 29, the media wing of the Houthis released a video showing Houthi fighters destroying two military vehicles of the Saudi military in the Kingdom’s southern province of Jizan with Iranian Toophan anti-tank guided missiles (ATGMs).
This was the first time this Iranian weapon was seen in the Yemeni battlefield.
According to experts, the Toophan is the Iranian copy of the US-made TOW ATGM system. Some variants of the Toophan ATGM have a range of more than 3.5km and can overcome reactive armour then penetrate 900mm of rolled homogeneous armour (RHA). Just like the TOW, the Toophan is guided by semi-automatic command to line of sight (SACLOS).
While this is the first time the Toophan is documented in the hands of the Houthis, the Saudi-led coalition foiled an attempt by Iranian intelligence to smuggle missiles of this type to the Yemeni group three years ago.
In the last few months, the Houthis destroyed dozens of vehicles of the Saudi-led coalition throughout Yemen and in southern Saudi Arabia, which indicates that Iran has stepped up its ATGM supplies to the Yemeni group. This will likely create more tensions between Riyadh and Tehran.
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