Replies to post #15984 on MILITARY ~ Honor, Duty, Country (mil)

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One of my favs ~~~~ along with Cherokee People ;-)

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U.S. Forces Attack Al Qaeda in Yemen
DOW JONES & COMPANY, INC. 2:32 PM ET 5/23/2017
By Asa Fitch in Dubai and Ben Kesling in Washington

U.S. Special Operations forces backed by an AC-130 gunship killed at least seven al Qaeda fighters in Yemen on Tuesday, the Pentagon said, as the Trump administration stepped up military pressure on the extremist militant group.

Targeting a cluster of buildings in central Marib province that were thought to be used as a base of operations and to plan attacks abroad, the U.S. forces clashed with fighters of al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula and then called in the gunship for reinforcement, Pentagon spokesman Capt. Jeff Davis said.

At least seven AQAP members were killed in the early-morning raid, Capt. Davis said. Some U.S. troops were wounded in the fighting, he added, giving no other details other than the injured soldiers left the battlefield under their own power. He also said there were no credible indications of civilian casualties during the operation.

The U.S. has long carried out drone strikes against AQAP, but Tuesday's operation was the first by U.S. Special Operations forces in Marib province and their deepest move into Yemen so far to fight AQAP, the spokesman said.

It was also the second known counterterrorism operation involving American air and ground forces in Yemen since Donald Trump was sworn in as president. As many as 14 AQAP militants were killed in a U.S. commando raid on Jan. 29, an operation in which a U.S. Navy SEAL also died.

The raid comes as Mr. Trump visits the Middle East in his first overseas tour as U.S. president. His stop in Israel and the Palestinian territories came a day after his two-day visit to Saudi Arabia, which is leading a regional coalition fighting to oust Houthi rebels from the Yemeni capital San'a and restore President Abed Rabbo Mansour Hadi to the seat of the government.

The Trump administration has signaled it wants to help Saudi Arabia expand its arsenal to counter Iranian influence, including in Yemen. During his visit to the Saudi capital Riyadh, Mr. Trump and Saudi King Salman Bin Abdulaziz Al Saud signed an arms deal worth nearly $110 billion.

The U.S. sees AQAP as an especially dangerous branch of the militant group because of the group's advanced bomb- making capabilities and history of carrying out attacks abroad.

The group claimed responsibility for a Nigerian man's 2009 attempt to detonate explosives sewn into his underwear aboard a Northwest Airlines flight to Detroit. A year later, authorities in the U.K. and the United Arab Emirates disrupted an AQAP plot to smuggle bombs onto cargo jets disguised as printer cartridges and detonate them midair.

The group said it carried out the 2015 attack on the Paris offices of Charlie Hebdo, a satirical magazine, that killed 12 people, including two of France's best-known cartoonists.

January's U.S. raid in Yemen's Shabwah province, the first known counterterrorism operation authorized by Mr. Trump, quickly sparked controversy.

Besides the death of the U.S. Navy SEAL, the U.S. acknowledged weeks later that civilians had also probably been killed. Local residents put the civilian death toll at about 20.

The White House touted the mission as a success, but Sen. John McCain, chairman of the Armed Services Committee, disputed that assessment, citing the death of an American soldier and the destruction of a U.S. aircraft. Mr. Trump criticized the Arizona senator for publicly discussing the raid.

The Trump administration and former Obama administration officials also offered differing accounts of how the January raid was planned and approved.

White House spokesman Sean Spicer said former President Barack Obama was presented with a proposal for the operation but didn't make a decision on it, while former Obama administration officials said such a mission wasn't under consideration.

Officials close to Mr. Hadi said they weren't consulted before the January raid but said they were looking forward to cooperating on future operations under Mr. Trump.

Capt. Davis, the Pentagon spokesman, said Tuesday's operation was planned recently and is part of a larger effort to target AQAP. He declined to say whether forces from other nations participated in it, saying only that the U.S. works "very closely with our partners" in the Arabian peninsula.

U.S. Central Command, which oversees U.S. military operations in the Middle East, North Africa and Central Asia, said it conducted Tuesday's operation with the support of Mr. Hadi's internationally recognized government, which is based in the southern port city of Aden.

Amid the security vacuum caused by the conflict, AQAP and Yemeni branches of Islamic State initially expanded. But Yemeni and coalition forces have pushed them back since last year, including driving AQAP from its stronghold Al Mukalla, a port city in the southern Hadramout province.

Write to Asa Fitch at [e-mail] and Ben Kesling at [e-mail]


(END) Dow Jones Newswires
05-23-171432ET
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