Dover Air Base - The US military said on Wednesday it was looking into whether more
civilians were killed in a raid on a- Qaeda in Yemen on the
weekend, in the first operation authorised by President Donald
Trump as commander in chief.
US Navy SEAL William "Ryan" Owens was killed in the raid
on a branch of al-Qaeda, also known as AQAP, in al Bayda
province, which the Pentagon said also killed 14 militants.
However, medics at the scene said about 30 people, including 10
women and children, were killed.
US Central Command said in a statement that an
investigating team had "concluded regrettably that civilian
non-combatants were likely killed" during Sunday's raid. It said
children may have been among the casualties.
Central Command said its assessment "seeks to determine if
there were any still-undetected civilian casualties in the
ferocious firefight".
US military officials told Reuters that Trump approved his
first covert counter-terrorism operation without sufficient
intelligence, ground support or adequate back-up preparations.
As a result, three officials said, the attacking SEAL team
found itself dropping onto a reinforced al-Qaeda base defended
by landmines, snipers, and a larger than expected contingent of
heavily armed Islamist extremists.
The Pentagon directed queries about the officials'
characterization of the raid to US Central Command, which
pointed only to its statement on Wednesday.
"CENTCOM asks for operations we believe have a good chance
for success and when we ask for authorization we certainly
believe there is a chance of successful operations based on our
planning," CENTCOM spokesman Colonel John Thomas said.
"Any operation where you are going to put operators on the
ground has inherent risks," he said.
The US officials said the extremists' base had been
identified as a target before the Obama administration left
office on January 20, but then-President Barack Obama held off
approving a raid ahead of his departure.
A White House official said the operation was thoroughly
vetted by the previous administration and that the previous
defence secretary had signed off on it in January. The raid was
delayed for operational reasons, the White House official said.
The military officials who spoke to Reuters on condition of
anonymity said "a brutal firefight" killed Owens and at least 15
Yemeni women and children. One of the dead was the 8-year-old
daughter of Anwar al-Awlaki, a militant killed by a 2011 US drone strike.
Some of the women were firing at the US force, Pentagon
spokesman Captain Jeff Davis told reporters.
The American elite forces did not seize any militants or
take any prisoners offsite, but White House spokesman Sean
Spicer said on Wednesday the raid yielded benefits.
"Knowing that we killed an estimated 14 AQAP members and
that we gathered an unbelievable amount of intelligence that
will prevent the potential deaths or attacks on American soil -
is something that I think most service members understand, that
that's why they joined the service," Spicer said.
A senior leader in Yemen's al-Qaeda branch, Abdulraoof
al-Dhahab, and other militants were killed in the gunbattle, al-Qaeda said.
One of the three US officials said on-the-ground
surveillance of the compound was "minimal, at best."
"The decision was made ... to leave it to the incoming
administration, partly in the hope that more and better
intelligence could be collected," that official said.
As Sunday's firefight intensified, the raiders called in
Marine helicopter gunships and Harrier jump jets, and then two
MV-22 Osprey vertical takeoff and landing aircraft to extract
the SEALs.
One of the two suffered engine failure, two of the officials
said, and hit the ground so hard that two crew members were
injured, and one of the Marine jets had to launch a
precision-guided bomb to destroy it.
Trump travelled to Dover Air Force Base in Delaware on
Wednesday in an unexpected visit to meet the family of Owens,
who had been a chief special warfare operator.