U.S. to continue backing Saudi coalition in Yemen war

WASHINGTON » Defense Secretary Jim Mattis said Tuesday the U.S. intends to continue backing the Saudi-led coalition fighting Houthi rebels in Yemen despite civilian casualties and questions about the Saudis’ commitment to avoiding killing innocents.

At a rare Pentagon news conference, Mattis defended U.S. support for the coalition, saying American influence on the Arab air campaign has made a difference in reducing instances of errant bombing and the targeting of civilians.

He noted, however, that U.S. support is conditioned on a Saudi commitment to doing “everything humanly possible” to avoid any loss of innocent life and Riyadh supporting a U.N.-brokered peace process to end the civil war. The U.S. provides the Saudis and their United Arab Emirate coalition partners with intelligence, aerial refueling and military advice, but U.S. forces are not directly involved in the airstrikes or other aspects of the fighting.

“For the last several years we have been working with the Saudis and the Emiratis, doing what we can to reduce any chance of innocent people being injured or killed,” Mattis said. In his first Pentagon news conference in months, Mattis also said the U.S. might carry out military exercises with South Korea next spring after having cancelled a major exercise this year as a gesture toward advancing diplomacy aimed at eliminating North Korea’s nuclear weapons. Mattis said no decision has been made on when to resume military exercises, but his statements suggested the recent cancellation might not be repeated.

“As you know, we took the step to suspend several of the largest exercises as a good-faith measure coming out of the Singapore summit,” he said, referring to President Donald Trump’s meeting June 12 with North Korean, which has yet to lead to any denuclearization. “We have no plans at this time to suspend any more exercises.”