Yemen's air force lost two fighter planes within a week of battling al-Houthi Shiite rebels in the country's remote mountainous north. The crash of a MiG-21 was reported Oct. 2, and a Sukhoi Su-22 crash was reported Oct. 5. Sanaa has insisted that both were the result of technical failure, while al-Houthi rebels claimed that they shot the planes down. Meanwhile, STRATFOR sources in Hezbollah have been quick to claim that their fighters in Yemen shot both aircraft down with Iranian-manufactured Misagh-1 man-portable air defense systems (MANPADS) — shoulder-fired surface-to-air missiles. Naturally, all of these players have reasons for making these competing claims. Sanaa has every interest in blaming the crashes on mechanical failure than on enemy fire. Al-Houthi claims of shooting down enemy aircraft are good publicity and morale boosts for the rebel fighters, whose latest round of revolt has been raging for more than two months.