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President directs Pentagon to expand Yemen missions
Al-Qaida affiliate targeted by White House
Trump pursues counterterrorism campaign against al-Qaida.
WASHINGTON — More than two years after a multisided civil war erupted inside Yemen that allowed al-Qaida’s local franchise to amass power and seize territory, President Donald Trump has directed the Pentagon to embark on a complicated counterterrorism campaign.
Trump’s decision, just six weeks into his presidency, intends to reverse the unchecked expansion across southern Yemen of al-Qaida in the Arabian Peninsula.
The willingness to expand counterterrorism operations inside Yemen was the latest signal that Trump is more willing to defer to military commanders on national security policy than former 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 last week, armed drones and warplanes conducted more than 30 airstrikes against suspected al-Qaida positions in three Yemeni provinces, marking 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, alQaida militants and Chief Petty Officer William “Ryan” Owens, 36, of Peoria, Ill.
The aerial bombardment is expected to continue. Trump is also considering granting more latitude to U.S. military commanders to conduct operations in Yemen, including more airstrikes and ground raids.
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 an airliner over Detroit in 2009 and a failed attack on two cargo planes headed to Chicago in 2010.
The group also claimed responsibility for the shooting that killed 12 at the satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo in Paris in 2015.
No specific threats or plots are being tracked in Yemen, Capt. Jeff Davis, a Pentagon spokesman, said Friday. 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 last week. Targets inside Yemen have been under surveillance for months.
U.S. intelligence officials, who were not authorized to speak publicly on ongoing operations, said the information on targeting AQAP more aggressively was presented to members of the Obama administration in their last month in office, but they deferred to Trump.
Defense Secretary James Mattis and Gen. Joseph Dunford, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, presented the strategy to Trump over dinner in his first week in office. The authority was granted to Gen. Joseph Votel, the 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 Trump to insulate himself from responsibility when operations go awry.
In a Fox News interview, Trump was asked about the January raid on a remote compound in Yakla village that devolved into the fierce and deadly shootout.
“This was a mission that was started before I got here,” Trump said last week. “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, Trump invited Owens’ widow to his address to Congress and praised the SEAL as a hero.
James Carafano, foreign policy and defense analyst for the right-leaning Heritage Foundation who advised the Trump transition, criticized Obama for micromanaging the military 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.”
A dearth of information prompted, in part, the rareon-the-ground Navy SEAL raid. The intent of the mission was to collect cellphones, laptops and other equipment containing intelligence, and operatives found phone numbers, contact information and data, U.S. officials have said. The captured data, however, is not informing the current military campaign.