Special Forces secretly assist as Saudis combat Yemen rebels

WASHINGTON — For years, the U.S. military has sought to distance itself from a brutal civil war in Yemen, where Saudi-led forces are battling rebels who pose no direct threat to the United States.

But late last year, a team of about a dozen Green Berets arrived on Saudi Arabia’s border with Yemen, in a continuing escalation of America’s secret wars.

With virtually no public discussion or debate, the Army commandos are helping locate and destroy caches of ballistic missiles and launch sites that Houthi rebels in Yemen are using to attack Riyadh and other Saudi cities.

Details of the Green Beret operation, which has not been previously disclosed, were provided to the New York Times by U.S. officials and European diplomats.

They appear to contradict Pentagon statements that U.S. military assistance to the Saudiled campaign in Yemen is limited to aircraft refueling, logistics and general intelligence sharing.

There is no indication the U.S. commandos have crossed into Yemen as part of the secretive mission.

But sending U.S. ground forces to the border is a marked escalation of Western assistance to target Houthi fighters who are deep in Yemen.

Sen. Tim Kaine, D-Va., a member of the Armed Services Committee, on Thursday called the Green Berets’ mission a “purposeful blurring of lines between train and equip missions and combat.” He cited the report in the Times and called for a new congressional vote on the authorization for the use of military force — a war powers legislation used by three successive presidents in conflict zones around the world.

Beyond its years as a base for al-Qaida in the Arabian Peninsula, Yemen has been convulsed by civil strife since 2014, when the Shiite Muslim rebels from the country’s north stormed the capital, Sanaa. The Houthis, who are aligned with Iran, ousted the government of President Abed Rabbo Mansour Hadi, the Americans’ main counterterrorism partner in Yemen.

In 2015, a military coalition led by Saudi Arabia began bombing the Houthis, who have responded by firing missiles into the kingdom. Yet there is no evidence the Houthis directly threaten the United States; they are an unsophisticated militant group with no operations outside Yemen and have not been classified by the U.S. government as a terrorist group.