US officials say Houthi bombing campaign hindered by intel gaps

The Pentagon has faced a "major challenge" in balancing ongoing military needs to check China in the Pacific with mounting demands for intelligence capabilities in the Middle East and Europe, said Jonathan Lord, director of the Middle East Security programme at the Center for a New American Security.

"We've seen things come back to the region over the past five months that weren't there," Lord said. "But in the intervening time period before that, the proverbial Eye of Sauron [from Tolkien's The Lord of the Rings] was fixed elsewhere."

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