Three Americans wounded in dawn assault as Central Command reports deaths of ‘estimated’ 14 members of al-Qaida in Arabian Peninsula
One elite US commando is dead and three wounded after a Yemen raid that Donald Trump’s Pentagon is signalling will be a template for aggressive counter-terrorism action.
The Pentagon did not address rumors of civilian casualties currently circulating on social media. An aircraft malfunction led to what the Pentagon called a “hard landing in a nearby location”. Commandos intentionally destroyed the aircraft, which local residents and officials said was a helicopter.
The US has been without a governmental partner in Yemen since a 2015 coup by the Houthi movement overthrew a US-backed administration. The US under both Barack Obama and Trump has supported a bloody Saudi-led air war to oust the Houthis.
Accordingly, the US was said to have staged Saturday’s raid offshore, from an aircraft carrier in the region.
“We are deeply saddened by the loss of one of our elite service members,” said Gen Joseph Votel, commander of US forces in the Middle East and south Asia.
“These sacrifices are very profound in our fight against terrorists who threaten innocent peoples across the globe.
Central Command, in a Sunday statement, said “an estimated” 14 members of al-Qaida in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP) had been killed in the raid. It provided no indication regarding the raid’s objective.
In a statement, Trump said: “A life of a heroic service member has been taken in our fight against the evil of radical Islamic terrorism,” and said his “deepest thoughts and humblest prayers are with the family of this fallen service member”.
He added: “The sacrifices made by the men and women of our armed forces, and the families they leave behind, are the backbone of the liberty we hold so dear as Americans, united in our pursuit of a safer nation and a freer world.”
The Pentagon clarified that US service members had not taken prisoners in the raid, forestalling the first major decision of the Trump administration over where to hold wartime detainees. Trump has vowed to send terrorist suspects captured overseas to Guantánamo Bay, and this week signed an executive order that underscored his determination to restock the infamous wartime detention center.
Central Command said the raid included “the capture of information that will likely provide insight into the planning of future terror plots”.
Local witnesses cited by Reuters said the gun battle in the rural Yakla district of Bayda province killed Abdulraoof al-Dhahab, a senior AQAP leader, along with other militants. Unidentified Yemeni security officials reportedly said three senior al-Qaida leaders were killed.
The military’s elite Joint Special Operations Command (J-Soc) has been intensely active in Yemen since the Obama administration, launching numerous drone strikes and raids against AQAP, which US intelligence officials consider the most dangerous of the remaining al-Qaida affiliates.
Before leaving Central Command, Votel commanded J-Soc. Trump’s national security adviser, the retired lieutenant general Michael Flynn, was once J-Soc’s intelligence chief.
Such deep experience with J-Soc makes it a likely instrument for counter-terrorism in the Trump era as well – Central Command indicated the Saturday raid in Yemen would be the first in an unfolding pattern.
“This is one in a series of aggressive moves against terrorist planners in Yemen and worldwide,“ Central Command said in a statement.
Elsewhere, fierce battles between Yemeni government forces and Shia rebels on the country’s west coast killed more than 100 fighters in 24 hours, officials said on Sunday.
A Saudi-led military coalition has been helping government forces battle the rebels for nearly two years. In 2014, the Shia Houthi rebels and their allies swept down from the north and captured the capital, Sana’a.
The bodies of at least 90 Houthi rebels were taken to a hospital in the Red Sea city of Hodeida, which is controlled by the insurgents, while 19 dead soldiers were taken to the southern port city of Aden, the medical and military sources said.