A SEAL operator was killed and 3 other soldiers were injured in an operation conducted against an al-Qaeda cell in Yemen on 28 January. This was confirmed by a statement from the White House which counts the first loss in the 'war on terrorism' passed into the hands of the Trump administration.
The raid conducted by a team of the NAVDEVGRU (United States Naval Special Warfare Development Group) in the Shabwa area was aimed at obtaining intelligence information and computer material related to the planning of terrorist attacks in the West.
The team was transported to the site by helicopters and broke into the building where the group of militants, all adult Yemeni males, had gathered to consume Qat: a plant with stimulating properties widely used as a drug in the Arabian peninsula.
As reported by the CENTCOM (United States Central Command), during the firefight triggered by the raid, 14 militants affiliated with the jhiadist terrorist organization al-Qaeda (AQAP) were eliminated; among them Abdulra'oof Aldahab, leader of AQAP in Yemen, and two of his relatives were identified.
The terrestrial operation, planned for months following the identification of the cell, has obtained the authorization of the new one Commander in Chief of the US Armed Forces Donald Trump, who has pledged to continue the fight against terrorism undertaken by the previous administrations. According to local sources, there have been many 'collateral' victims caused by the air cover provided by the UAVs and by the 'Apache' assault helicopters which intervened during the recovery of the SEAL team. US officials said a V-22 tiltrotor Osprey it was lost after a crash landing near the area where the operation took place. Two crew members were injured and evacuated. It has not been indicated whether allied countries of the United States will soon participate in the operation, but in recent months there has been frequent collaboration in the field of agents of the United Arab Emirates who have helped US intelligence in the identification and acquisition of target among al-Qaeda affiliates in Yemen.
Several 'hunter killer' missions have been conducted in the last few weeks by UAVs that have eliminated at least 5 targets.
The last time US forces organized a raid of this magnitude in Yemen was in December 2014, just months before civil war broke out in the country. Operations for the fight against terrorism in the area then underwent a drastic downsizing, limiting themselves to monitoring with drones and the aforementioned 'hunter killer' operations.
(photo: web / US Navy)
