More than 100 US military advisers are in Saudi Arabia assisting Riyadh with intelligence and targeting support for its renewed war in Yemen, CNN reported on Thursday.
One of CNN’s sources, an unnamed US official, put the number of US troops assisting in the effort at 200 and said they were part of a new joint task force that was formed in recent weeks as the war in Yemen began to escalate.
The war was reignited by July 13 Saudi airstrikes on Sanaa International Airport, an attack that was approved by President Trump, according to a report from Axios. The strikes were launched to prevent a plane from landing in Sanaa that took off from Iran, which was carrying a Yemeni delegation that attended the funeral of Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.
US and Saudi officials also alleged that the plane was carrying weapons and Iranian advisors. Following the strikes, Ansar Allah, also known as the Houthis, announced they were imposing a blockade on Saudi shipping, and the war has continued to escalate since then. Now, Ansar Allah is making significant gains on the ground, pushing closer to the Bab el-Mandeb Strait.
US intelligence and other supporters also supported the brutal Saudi-led war in Yemen from 2015 to 2022, which involved frequent airstrikes on civilians. At least one recent Saudi airstrike has resulted in significant casualties: an attack that hit a prison in Yemen’s northern al-Jawf province, killing at least 23 people, including a child.
Sources told CNN that the current US support has involved helping Saudi Arabia use a targeting tool that lets military officers see in real time what is happening on the battlefield, similar to the Pentagon’s AI platform Maven, and providing “geospatial” intelligence for strikes in Yemen. Saudi Arabia’s air force also uses a significant number of US-made fighter jets, which require US maintenance support, and uses US-provided bombs.
