Agreed on that bombing (how surprisingly quickly that disappeared from the corporate media eh? Once it turned out the image they were sharing was a tribal meeting and nothing to do with "terrorism" it was out of there like a rat up a pipe).

That sounds like quite the story (re: you thinking it was curtains). I reckon you have a bit of a James Bond past hidden away

Anyway, in these reports the phrase "nearly shot down" is doing a ton of heavy lifting (count how many times "nearly" appears in the Sim article) and I think they are using the fact they SAM's were fired against them as a bit of an excuse and the real reason they have changed course is the lack of effect they are having which is making them look bad and the humungous sums of money they are burning up which could of course be turned against them with all their DOGE bollocks at home.

The story of the F35 "nearly being shot down" is basically "a SAM was fired, the F35 took evasive action". It wasn't reacquired, it didn't sound particularly close, it didn't abort the flight. The two hornets they lost fell off a carrier. The SAM activity hasn't stopped them flying missions, they just haven't been very good at doing what they intended.

Not that I'm playing down what a bloody nose the Yemenis have given the septics but I think they are playing the potential for shoot downs up a little for their own reasons and before they start to look even worse.