OMFG -U.S. Commando Killed in Yemen in Trumps First Counterterror Operation

[malaise]

https://www.nytimes.com/2017/01/29/world/middleeast/american-commando-killed-in-yemen-in-trumps-first-counterterror-operation.html?_r=0
<snip>
One American commando was killed and three others injured in a fierce firefight overnight with Qaeda militants in central Yemen, the military said Sunday morning. The raid was the first counterterrorism operation approved by President Trump since he took office nine days ago.

Commandos from the Navy’s SEAL Team 6 carried out the surprise dawn attack in Bayda Province in a ground raid that lasted just under an hour. The target was a headquarters for Al Qaeda’s branch in Yemen that counterterrorism officials had deemed valuable enough to warrant a ground operation rather than an airstrike, a senior American official said.

Gen. Joseph Votel, the head of the Pentagon’s Central Command, said in a statement: “We are deeply saddened by the loss of one of our elite service members. The sacrifices are very profound in our fight against terrorists who threaten innocent peoples across the globe.”

A military aircraft assisting in the operation crash-landed nearby, leaving a fourth service member injured, the statement said. That aircraft, identified by a senior American official as a V-22 Osprey sent to evacuate the troops wounded in the raid, was unable to fly after the landing and was destroyed by American airstrikes.

An estimated 14 Qaeda fighters were killed in the raid, which led to “the capture of information that will likely provide insight into the planning of future terror plots,” the statement said.

A senior American official denied reports from the region that civilian women and children were among the dead.

[jmg257]

1. More from the Guardian...

The raid is the first in Yemen by the US military since the country descended into civil war nearly two years ago.

In a message on its official Telegram account, al-Qaida mourned Dhahab as a “holy warrior” and other dead militants, without specifying how many of its fighters had been killed.

“The operation began at dawn when a drone bombed the home of Abdulraoof al-Dhahab and then helicopters flew up and unloaded paratroopers at his house and killed everyone inside,” said one resident, who spoke on condition of anonymity.
“Next, the gunmen opened fire at the US soldiers who left the area, and the helicopters bombed the gunmen and a number of homes and led to a large number of casualties.”

A Yemeni security officer and a local official corroborated that account.
...
The US conducted dozens of drone strikes in Yemen throughout Barack Obama’s presidency to combat al-Qaida in the Arabian Peninsula, regarded as one of the global militant group’s most dangerous branches.

The local al-Qaida unit organized the Charlie Hebdo magazine attack in Paris in 2015 and has repeatedly tried to down US airliners.

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2017/jan/29/al-qaida-suspects-yemen-killed-raid-us-commandos

[Cooley Hurd]

2. Think Drumpf will show up at Dover AFB?

I don't...

[malthaussen]

3. Reminds me a bit of Eagle Claw

... although they're claiming some positive results.

It's a war, people die.

-- Mal