The US military said late on Wednesday that civilians “were likely killed” during a Navy SEAL raid in Yemen on Saturday, a ground operation that erupted into a massive firefight that also took the life of an American sailor.
A statement issued by the US Central Command said that an investigatory team “has concluded regrettably” that an unspecified number of civilians “appear to have been potentially caught up in aerial gunfire that was called in to assist US forces” that were “receiving fire from all sides.”
Media reports from the region said that at least 10 Yemeni women and children were killed in the raid, the first counterterrorism operation authorised by President Trump.
“You never want to call something a success 100 per cent when someone’s hurt or killed,” White House press secretary Sean Spicer said on Wednesday, referring to the death of Chief Special Warfare Operator William “Ryan” Owens, whose remains arrived on Wednesday at Dover Air Force Base. Trump travelled to the Delaware base for the ceremony.
The speed with which the military acknowledged the civilian deaths was in stark contrast to the investigations after most previous allegations of civilian casualties, which have often taken months, if not years.
The goal of the operation was to detain Yemeni tribal leaders allegedly collaborating with Al Qaida in Yemen and to gather intelligence about the group. Instead, a massive firefight ensued that brought in US aircraft to strike the fighters and rescue the military team.
One of the aircraft, an MV-22 Osprey from a US naval ship offshore, lost power and hit the ground hard enough to disable it and wound two service members.
The Central Command statement said that “determined enemy” forces “included armed women firing from prepared fighting positions,” and US special operators were fired on from houses and other buildings.
“Al Qaida in the Arabian Peninsula has a horrifying history of hiding women and children within militant operating areas and terrorist camps, and continuously shows a callous disregard for innocent lives,” Central Command spokesman John Thomas said in the statement. “That’s what makes cases like these so especially tragic.”
The statement also said that “the raid resulted in the seizure of materials and information that is yielding valuable intelligence to help partner nations deter and prevent future terror attacks in Yemen and across the world.”
Although US forces have conducted air strikes against Al Qaida in Yemen in recent years, the operation was the first US-led ground raid in Yemen since 2014.
The International Crisis Group (ICG) said in a report on Thursday that the raid may have given Al Qaida in Yemen a propaganda boost in killing civilians.
“The raid ... is a good example of what not to do,” ICG’s senior Arabian Pensinsula analyst April Alley wrote.
“The use of US troops and the high number of civilian casualties ... are deeply inflammatory and breed anti-American resentment across the Yemeni political spectrum that works to the advantage of AQAP,” she added.
Former President Barack Obama repeatedly killed top leaders in the organisation with unmanned drone attacks but, ICG said, that strategy may not ultimately defeat it.
“It is too early to determine what, if any, broader strategy the Trump administration has in Yemen ... (But drone strikes) have failed to stop its rapid growth — in large part because the opportunities provided by the war outstrip its losses.”
