Trump's first military operation fails in Yemen

The Pentagon announced on Monday that one American commando was killed and three others were wounded in a fierce firefight early Sunday with Qaeda militants in Bayda province in Yemen, The Pentagon added that the US military carried out the surprise dawn attack, noting that about 14 Qaeda fighters were killed during a nearly hourlong battle.

It was the first counter-terrorism operation authorized by President Trump since he took office, and the commando was the first United States service member to die in the years-long shadow war against Al Qaeda’s Yemen affiliate.

A United States military aircraft helping with the operation experienced a “hard landing” near the site of the raid, resulting in injuries to two other service members, military officials said. That aircraft, identified by a senior American official as an Osprey that was evacuating the troops wounded in the firefight, was unable to fly after the landing and was deliberately destroyed by American airstrikes. The wounded troops and the Osprey’s crew were lifted to safety by another American aircraft.

The military’s Joint Special Operations Command had been planning the mission for months, according to three senior American officials. Obama administration aides had deliberated extensively over the proposed operation, weighing the value of any information that might be recovered against the risk to the Special Operations forces plunging into hostile territory. But administration officials ultimately opted to hand the decision on the mission to their successors.
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As helicopter gunships and armed Reaper drones provided cover, the commandos carried out the attack against the home of the Qaeda leader in the rugged mountainous region of Bayda Province, a part of Yemen that has been a focal point of United States military operations over the past month. The main target was computer materials inside the house that could contain clues about future terrorist plots.

At least 10 Yemeni women and children have been killed in the first US military operation in the country authorized by President Donald Trump, medics and local media have said.
The US military said it killed 14 members of al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP) in Sunday's dawn raid in the southern province of al-Bayda that involved missiles and helicopter machine guns.
In a statement, the Pentagon did not refer to any civilian casualties, although a US military official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said they could not be ruled out.
AQAP said Abdulraouf al-Zahab, a senior leader of the group, was killed along with several other fighters in the raid on the area that has been a frequent target of US drone strikes.
Medics in al-Bayda's rural Yakla district put the death toll at around 30, including 10 women and children.