The weekend raid by SEAL Team 6 forces into Yemen to target what was described as “al-Qaeda headquarters,” was championed by the administration as a great success in the initial wake of it, but subsequent accounts have instead shown a complete disaster, with losses among the attack US forces and substantial harm to civilians, virtually destroying the entire village and leading Yemen’s Foreign Minister to fault the attack as “extrajudicial killings.”
The attack on the village of Yakla didn’t target a “headquarters,” but rather the home of a person the US believed was an al-Qaeda “collaborator.” This would explain why the named casualties from reports were all from the same family, the in-laws of US-born cleric Anwar Awlaki, whose 8-year-old daughter was slain in the raid.
The raid was scheduled for a night with no moon to make the multi-mile ground raid into the village a total surprise. Locals knew long before the troops got there, however, saying there were more US surveillance drones than usual and they were flying lower than would be normal long before the attack. The SEALs knew their mission was compromised but went in anyway.
Without the element of surprise, locals had set up a substantial defense, taking up positions around the village. As troops attacked and called in airstrikes, women started picking up weapons and opening fire on the SEALs as well, leading to more airstrikes.
This turned a “secret” raid on one guy’s house into the obliteration of almost the whole village, and despite Pentagon claims of “14 al-Qaeda fighters killed,” local estimates put the overall death toll around 57, with a lot of women and children shot to death as the fighting went from bad to worse.
Though the administration is holding out hope that data seized during the raid will somehow vindicate the operation, the fact that the targeted “headquarters” was actually just a personal residence of a collaborator with an al-Qaeda affiliate makes hopes of a bin Laden-level of intelligence unlikely in the extreme.
In Syria there are whole AQ-affiliated ARMIES in the field, yet the US does NOTHING to strike them as they are fighting against the Syrian government. Instead, they attack a small village in Yemen to kill an alleged AQ collaborator (and destory nearly the entire village).
Yeah, well done Uncle Sham…
The US coalition has started bombing nusra from what I hear. South front reported coalition airstrikes in idlib province yesterday.
So in a few hours it went from a veritable redoubt bristling with grizzled monsters…to the women and children were shooting at us…
Really.
I mean, really?
Having read a ton about AQ in Yemen over the years, it’s not surprising to me, that the entire town would have fought against them. When AQ takes over these towns they become the town’s law from top to bottom. Strict Sharia law is imposed and no decent is allowed at all. In their own way there are every bit as extreme as ISIS and in Yemen they are completely in charge of various towns around the country. This has been the case for years now but has expanded greatly during this new war. Of course there are many people in Yemen who do not like it when AQ takes over but generally they go along with it because they have little choice in the matter.
These townspeople also have every reason to hate Americans who have made them live in fear from “death from above” every waking moment of their lives. They might not prefer to live under AQ and their barbarism but they HATE Americans and given the chance to fight back against them, I’m sure most of them were more than willing to fight to the death. I can completely understand why they would feel this way. This faceless enemy who holds the power of life and death over them is suddenly there in person. Who wouldn’t take up arms at that point?
I agree with what you’re saying. Still, the fact that they didn’t lead with that and lied thru their teeth makes one wonder.
Absolutely does make you wonder, in fact I think it’s wise to never accept what they say at face value. Especially considering that they almost always change their story.
Maybe someday Uncle Sam will have a military that can beat goat herders carrying AK-47s, but I doubt it.
Will no-one rid us of Team America?
Just 8 more years to go.
? This is a continuation of a policy started by Bush then greatly increased by Obama. Truly bipartisan Trump (much as I loath him) sounded dovish notes more often than HRC.
“Unfortunately,” the Emperor said, “I only sent in five troop carriers with a light attack force to pick up prisoners for questioning. We barely got away with three prisoners and one carrier. Mind you, Baron, my Sardaukar were almost overwhelmed by a force composed mostly of women, children, and old men. This child here was in command of one of the attacking groups.”
“You see, Your Majesty!” the Baron said. “You see how they are!”
“I allowed myself to be captured,” the child said. “I did not want to face my brother and have to tell him that his son had been killed.”
“Only a handful of our men got away,” the Emperor said. “Got away! You hear that?”
It may turn out that Trump and Obama are far closer aligned on foreign policy than either man would like to admit, it seems Trump is buying into the 15 years old game of whack-a-mole which has helped fuel terrorism more than reduce it.
it’s not only the regime change wars that need to end, it’s the terror war. Trump should have coupled his travel ban with an announcement that the US is done with the terror war and it’s up to the regional powers to deal with it. Trump should have just said “from this day onwards, we’re basically going to be a giant switzerland”
you cannot ever win the war on terror because you can never declare it over, because the moment you do someone sets off a bomb on a bus, train or plane, so it just keeps going on and on and on, one big giant cycle of violence, it’s going to take a far more brave person than Trump to end this craziness.
Plus-ca-change.
They need to replace the drones, special forces and helicopters with proper native policing. If it weren’t for the stupid Saudi attempts at regime change in Yemen, the Houthis and their allies would have swept over this area and wiped out alqaeda ages ago. It has to be local people fighting against the extremists, not Americans, otherwise the people will rally against foreign invaders – just like the women of this village did.
Well despite their many differences, Trump and Obama are united in their belief in American Exceptionalism. They both are imbibers of this intoxicating drug.
Iran will be to Trump what Iraq was to G.W. Bush.
Too bad that all the US child-killers were not wiped out ….. Karma will get these vile bastards.
It’s very bad that they killed those civilians. But they were trying to hit al-qaeda, so I also mourn the American losses.
You mourn the murderers, you also have blood on your hands, demonic nation.
You don’t know what nation I’m from. I’m not keen on al-Qaeda. Are you?
We made al Qaeda.
Kissinger did. But that doesn’t make it any less important that they should be stopped.
You’re not “stopping” them that way
Sporadic drone strikes and commando raids indeed do not defeat groups like al Qaeda. However, when when are part of a coordinated strategy to restore government, stability and rule of law to a failed state, then they might.
I apologize to the world for the USA’s corrupt leadership that does not SPEAK for the REAL people of America. Like the other countries around the world, our government tries to stifle FREE speech.
Just because our country is so uneducated that they put in (NOT ELECTED) a POS that is no better or worse than Obama, Clinton, Bush, Bush, Reagan, Nixon, Carter, Ford, need I go on with the ones that sold us out for their own wealth? In my opinion each of these men did their own wrong and I pray that if there is a god (which I don’t believe there is) they all rot in hell throughout eternity. You can throw the worthless rest of government and military in with them and I will smile. I do NOT condone MURDER or TERRORISM which my country is operating under the guise of Free Speech BS!
ANOTHER American citizen murdered without due process, an eight-year old child that was shot several times. Do these American death squads, at long last, have no shame at all? They have taken our Constitution and wiped their asses with it.
And they are coming for us next.
As Malcolm said, “Chickens coming home to roost”. Eric Prince, owner of the former Blackwater and brother of Betsy DeVos, is reported to be a close advisor to the Trump regime.
Why are you blaming the military? Don’t you know you’re supposed to support the troops? support the troops.
Obama is responsible! (oh, wait, that’s not right anymore)
luv from Canada.
So this was not an al-Qaeda C&C facility, but a private residence, not the residence of a confirmed al-Qaeda leader, but the residence of someone the US “believed” was a “collaborator.” Was this “belief” based on guilt by association, that this person was an in-law of Anwar al-Awlaki? During the campaign, Trump opined that the families of terrorists should be punished as well as the terrorists themselves. Clearly, President Trump did not initiate the planning for this operation, nor is it likely anyone knew that Nora al-Awlaki and her mother would be there on the night of the next new moon. However, this is not all coincidence, either. It’s indicative of a barbaric mindset we thought we had abolished with the US Constitution’s prohibition against bills of attainder, a mindset obviously shared by Trump and many in our military/intelligence community.
That this was a criminal act is attested by the fact that even the FM of the Hadi government backed by the US and KSA has condemned it. Clearly, they were neither informed nor consulted. It was therefore a violation of international law and a war crime.
Bombs, drones and SEAL raids will not end terrorism. The most effective way to end terrorism is to stop arming terrorists and their Saudi, Qatari, UAE, Turkish and Israeli backers. But then what mission would our “brave” soldiers have?
I wonder how this will effect Trump moving forward? Is there any hope at all that this will actually help change his mind about the omnipotence of the “special forces”? He had the decency to go meet the family of the man that he helped get killed. How will that meeting effect him personally? In the past he has also talked rather widely about feeling bad about the suffering of innocent Muslims as well. Will he realize that this is exactly how war goes and that it never goes according to plan? I’m sure that he was sold on this raid with the idea that it would be better than a drone strike in some basic way. Possibly he believed it would be less likely to get innocent people killed and more likely to cough up intelligence info. Has anyone considered that he might have actually believed this was going to be less harmful to civilians? Now that he knows that it doesn’t work that way, in practice, will he learn any lesson from this at all and if so what will that lesson be?
Just as others here have stated; I wish he would have just canceled the “war on terror”. But does anyone think that this is even remotely possible at this point? Is there possibly some way that he can “win” enough battles to call it a victory and actually put an end to this madness? Only time will tell but I’m not going to be holding my breath. Sadly I have to conclude that the entire American Regime is so in love with war that it’s unlikely to end in our lifetimes.
Will Trump be told the truth about this raid and what it yielded? I doubt it.
You Americans are learning very quickly now that your country is coming back to it’s normal behaviour after Obama kept the lid on it for 8 years. Apparently Trump believes that Syria and Iran are back on the table as future candidates for allout US led war.
And fwiw, wars with Syria and Iran are very popular with the American people as well as the US congress.
luv from Canada.
Maybe Flynn will blame Iran. You know, the country he put on notice for testing missiles. Damn, if they had done one these raids they would be getting carpet bombed as we speak.
A tiny lesson in Seal Team 6 against the peasants. We all belong to the human race. The illiterate tribal nobody for some flyblown dump of a country has every bit of the same innate intelligence as the “exceptional American” or “chosen people’. America, with 5% of the world’s population, cannot lord over the rest no matter how strong their belief in their own cultural superiority.
Is there any way to corroborate this story? It is worrying indeed…