Trump expands counterrorism in Yemen

Move meant to stop al-Qaida expansion

Los Angeles Times

WASHINGTON — More than two years after a multisided civil war erupted in Yemen that allowed alQaida’s local franchise to amass power and seize territory, President Donald Trump has told the Pentagon to conduct a complicated counterterrorism campaign.

Mr. Trump’s decision, just six weeks into his presidency, intends to reverse the largely unchecked expansion across southern Yemen of the group, Al-Qaida in the Arabian Peninsula.

The willingness to expand counterterrorism operations inside Yemen is another signal that Mr. Trump is more willing to defer to military commanders on national security policy than was President Barack Obama, who was criticized publicly by three of his four Defense secretaries and privately by uniformed officers for micromanaging the military.

Over two days this past week, armed drones and warplanes conducted more than 30 airstrikes against suspected al-Qaida positions in three Yemeni provinces. They were the first U.S. attacks in the country since an ill-fated Navy SEAL raid in January that killed two dozen civilians, including women and children, al-Qaida militants and Navy SEAL William “Ryan” Owens.

The airstrikes are expected to continue into this week. Mr. Trump is considering giving more power to U.S. military commanders to conduct operations in Yemen, including ground attacks.

The militant group is considered by intelligence officials to be al-Qaida’s most dangerous affiliate because of its repeated attempts to attack American targets, including the bombing attempt aboard a U.S.-bound airliner over Detroit in 2009 and a failed attack on two cargo planes flying to Chicago in 2010. The group also claimed responsibility for the shooting that killed 12 people at the satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo in Paris in 2015.

No specific threats or plots were being tracked in Yemen, Capt. Jeff Davis, a Pentagon spokesman, said Friday. Rather, he said, the latest strikes were designed to eliminate the Yemeni countryside as a place “where they can plot and execute external attacks.”

The U.S. military did not specify why the operation kicked off this week. Targets inside Yemen, the Arab world’s poorest nation, have been under surveillance for months.

U.S. intelligence officials who spoke on the condition of anonymity said the information on targeting al-Qaida in Yemen more aggressively was presented to the Obama administration in its last month in office, but was deferred to Mr. Trump.

Defense Secretary James N. Mattis and Gen. Joseph F. Dunford Jr., chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, presented the strategy to Mr. Trump in his first week in office. The authority was granted to Gen. Joseph Votel, top U.S. commander in the Middle East, to carry out the Jan. 29 special operations raid and airstrikes on a list of targets.

The delegation of authority could be seen as a way for Mr. Trump to insulate himself from responsibility when operations go awry.

In an interview Thursday on Fox News, Mr. Trump was asked about the January raid on a remote compound in Yakla village that devolved into the deadly shootout.

“This was a mission that was started before I got here,” Mr. Trump said. “This was something they wanted to do. They came to me, they explained what they wanted to do. The generals, who are very respected, my generals are the most respected that we’ve had in many decades, I believe,” he said. “And they lost Ryan.”

Later that day, Mr. Trump invited Navy SEAL Owens’ widow to his first address to Congress, and publicly praised the SEAL as a hero.

James J. Carafano, foreign policy and defense analyst for the right-leaning Heritage Foundation, who advised the Trump transition, criticized Mr. Obama for micromanaging military decisions but said presidents must be willing to accept accountability.

“You can delegate authority but not responsibility,” he said. “In a sense, you put your personal reputation at risk. So if you delegate authority and then something goes wrong, because you hold the responsibility, the fault comes back on you.”