The Pentagon said it killed dozens of Islamic State fighters Monday in airstrikes on two training camps in Yemen.
The strikes in western Yemen south of the capital Sanaa disrupted training sites in a lawless area of the country where the militant group was training fighters on how to use AK-47 rifles, machines guns, and rocket-propelled grenades, according to the Pentagon.
“ISIS has used the ungoverned spaces of Yemen to plot, direct, instigate, resource and recruit for attacks against America and its allies around the world,” the Pentagon said. “For years, Yemen has been a hub for terrorist recruiting, training and transit.”
President Trump has ratcheted up military operations in Yemen, which is in the midst of a civil war, since taking office with a special operations raid earlier this year that killed a Navy SEAL and many more airstrikes aimed at the Islamic State and also al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula.
An Army staff sergeant was killed Aug. 25 in a Black Hawk crash off the coast of Yemen in what the Pentagon said was a training operation.
