The Pentagon says the commando raid on an al Qaeda cell in Yemen had been planned for months, but over the weekend all the targets were in one spot, and it was time to strike.
The decision on whether to fly a U.S. Navy SEAL team into a remote area of Yemen at the risk of American lives, or to attack with drones from a safe distance away, fell to President Trump, just seven days in office.
Ordering U.S. troops into combat is one the weightiest decisions a president ever faces. The safe call would be to launch a drone strike, but the ground attack held the prospect of capturing terrorists and gathering valuable intelligence.
“This was specifically for us to gather the information we needed to map out this group better, and prevent future foreign attacks,” said Navy Capt. Jeff Davis, a Pentagon spokesman.
The target was a group of leaders of al Qaeda in Arabian Peninsula, a group known for plotting attacks against the West.
The mission was risky, as borne out by the fact that one U.S. Navy SEAL was killed, three others wounded in a fierce firefight, and a V-22 Osprey tiltrotor aircraft had to be destroyed after a hard landing disabled it and injured three crew members.
Afterward, the Pentagon made a point of saying the raid, in addition to killing 14 AQAP members, also resulted in the capture of valuable intelligence.
Critics of President Obama’s counterterrorism strategy argued it relied too much on drone strikes, which were effective in killing terrorist leaders, but forfeits the opportunity to exploit intelligence, such as computer files and mobile phones.
“It’s obviously a basic law of physics and warfare that an airstrike is not going to get you much intelligence,” Davis said. “It takes people on the ground who can gather those things.”
Pentagon officials also discounted claims that the U.S. raid resulted in civilian casualties, including women and children.
Officially the claims are under investigation, but Pentagon sources say all 14 people killed were enemy combatants, including some women.
“I would note that there were a lot of female combatants that were part of this,” Davis said. “We saw during this operation as it was taking place, that female fighters ran to pre-established positions as though they had trained to be ready and trained to be combatants.”
