The Pentagon Thursday denied a published report in the New York Times that U.S. special operations commandos lost the element of surprise in their weekend raid against al Qaeda-linked terrorists in Yemen.
The Times account said, “Through a communications intercept, the commandos knew that the mission had been somehow compromised, but pressed on toward their target roughly five miles from where they had been flown into the area.”
The paper also quoted a former SEAL Team 6 official as saying, “They kind of knew they were screwed from the beginning.”
But Pentagon officials, both publicly and privately, strongly disputed that account.
“We have no information to suggest that this was compromised,” said Navy Capt. Jeff Davis. “I don’t know where they got the information for that report but it does not match with reality.”
Another official with access to battlefield reports said there were no intercepted communications that indicated the members of the al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula who were holed up in a heavily guarded building knew the U.S. forces were coming.
“This is a dicey area to begin with and AQAP is already in a semi-state of war with the Houthis who are very close to where they are,” Davis said. “That they had pre-established [fighting] positions is not necessarily suggestive that they were waiting for us to come, they would probably be more ready for others.
Officials said the original plan was to go in, grab intelligence and leave, but that the SEALs began to take fire from all directions, and had no choice but to call in airstrikes to suppress the enemy fire.
Davis blamed what he called AQAP’s “callous disregard for life,” for putting non-combatants, including children in the line of fire.
U.S. Central Command says it believes a number of civilians were killed by the airstrikes or exchange of gunfire.
But Davis insisted that despite the loss of a U.S. Navy SEAL and a $70 million V-22 tiltrotor aircraft, the mission was in fact a success.
“Valuable and actionable intelligence was taken in this operation,” Davis said. “And why that’s important is that AQAP remains the most capable element of al Qaeda … in exporting terror to the west.”
