A bipartisan group of four senators want the Trump administration to give a classified briefing into the raid in Yemen that left a Navy SEAL and several civilians dead.
Sens. Chris Murphy, D-Conn., Rand Paul, R-Ky., Al Franken, D-Minn., and Mike Lee, R-Utah, sent a letter to Secretary of Defense Jim Mattis, Secretary of State Rex Tillerson and Michael Dempsey, acting director of national intelligence, asking for a classified briefing on the Jan. 28 raid.
The operation has received bipartisan criticism due to the amount of American casualties — four SEALs were wounded, in addition to the death of Senior Chief Petty Officer William “Ryan” Owens, and an Osprey tilt-rotor had to be destroyed after it crashed — in order to gather intelligence on al Qaeda in Yemen.
“We write today with serious concerns about U.S. policy in Yemen and to urgently request a classified briefing regarding our actions and objectives there,” the senators wrote in a letter. “The situation in Yemen remains complex, with an ongoing civil war and humanitarian crisis — further complicated by U.S. support for Saudi Arabia’s bombing campaign there — as well as a growing terrorist threat from Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula.”
The senators said they were worried about reports that Yemen was planning on suspending American special operations raids in the country after the operation.
The briefing must include information on the status of U.S. counterterrorism operations in Yemen, the American involvement in Yemen’s civil war, the operations of American allies working in Yemen and what the overall objectives are for the U.S. military in Yemen.
“Events of the last two weeks underscore the complexity and the risks of our involvement in Yemen, and we believe a detailed report to Congress from the Department of Defense, Department of State, and the Intelligence Community about U.S. policy there is necessary,” the letter stated.
