American citizens will never be the targets of counterterrorism operations, White House press secretary Sean Spicer said Tuesday.
“No American citizen will ever be targeted,” Spicer said in response to questions about the reported death of the 8-year-old daughter of Anwar al-Awlaki, an American citizen and al Qaeda leader who was killed five years ago.
A Navy SEAL and an 8-year-old American citizen died in the first Trump-era U.S. military raid https://t.co/2CTdRg07MW pic.twitter.com/c6Ps9oRbTR
— NBC News (@NBCNews) January 30, 2017
His young daughter was reportedly killed in a counterterror raid in Yemen carried out by U.S. special operations forces on Sunday. Navy Chief Petty Officer William Ryan Owens was also killed in a firefight that occurred during the raid. The raid was ordered by President Trump, his first such act since becoming president.
The raid is believed to have killed 14 people, including women, and the Pentagon said it was assessing reports that non-combatants were killed.
“There were a lot of female combatants who were part of this,” said Pentagon spokesman Navy Capt. Jeff Davis, according to the New York Times. “We saw during this operation as it was taking place that female fighters ran to pre-established positions as though they’d been trained to be ready and trained to be combatants.
“Take reports of female casualties with a grain of salt,” he added. “Not all female casualties are civilian casualties. In many cases, and certainly in this one, females can be legitimate combatants.”
Anwar al-Awlaki was born in the U.S. and was killed in a drone strike in 2011, becoming the first American citizen to be targeted by the government in a counterterrorism strike.
