US sends troops to Yemen, steps up anti-Qaeda strikes

[Freewill]

News dump on a Friday. Warrior Obama at it again.

US sends troops to Yemen, steps up anti-Qaeda strikes

Washington (AFP) - The Pentagon acknowledged for the first time Friday it has deployed US troops to Yemen since the country's collapse last year to bolster government and Arab coalition forces battling Al-Qaeda.

Spokesman Navy Captain Jeff Davis said the US military has also stepped up air strikes against fighters with Yemen-based Al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP).

A "very small number" of American military personnel has been working from a "fixed location" with Yemeni and Arab coalition forces -- especially the Emiratis -- in recent weeks around Mukalla, a port city seized by AQAP a year ago, Davis said.

"This is of great interest to us. It does not serve our interests to have a terrorist organization in charge of a port city, and so we are assisting in that," the spokesman added.

 

[paulitician]

Another day, another war. The Permanent War rolls on. When will Americans have enough?

 

[Freewill]

Another day, another war. The Permanent War rolls on. When will Americans have enough?

I can imagine the rules of engagement. Don't take any chances, bomb from long range.

 

[Desperado]

Those that fail to learn from history are doomed to repeat it.
or
"Insanity: doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results."
The above statements define the US Foreign Policy and our ass wipe leaders in charge.

 

[Freewill]

Those that fail to learn from history are doomed to repeat it.
or
"Insanity: doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results."
The above statements define the US Foreign Policy and our ass wipe leaders in charge.

Vote for Mrs. Tuzla Clinton, vote for more of the same.

 

[waltky]

Granny says, "Dat's right - Obama gettin' serious `bout kickin' some jihadi butt...

American Troops in Yemen Signals Deepening US Involvement in Mideast
May 07, 2016 | A small team of U.S. troops was on the ground in Yemen and Navy ships with Marines aboard were offshore to support friendly forces against an al-Qaeda offshoot as the U.S. deepened its involvement in yet another Mideast civil war, the Pentagon said Friday.

Capt. Jeff Davis, a Pentagon spokesman, declined to say how many U.S. troops were in Yemen near the port city of Mukalla, a former stronghold of the al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula terror group, or whether they were Special Forces. Davis said it was a "very small team" that had been sent into Yemen two weeks ago and was expected to be withdrawn soon. "We view this as short term," he said. In addition, the U.S. has been conducting anti-terror airstrikes in Yemen against the terror organization apart from the effort to assist local forces on the ground, Davis said. Four airstrikes since April 23 had killed an estimated 10 fighters, he said. The amphibious assault ship USS Boxer, lead ship for an amphibious ready group with Marines from the 13th Marine Expeditionary Unit aboard, and two Arleigh Burke-class guided missile destroyers, the USS Gravely and the USS Gonzalez, were also positioned off Mukalla, Davis said.

The troops on the ground and the ships offshore together were providing "airborne intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance, advice and assistance with operational planning, maritime interdiction and security operations, medical support and aerial refueling," Davis said. At a Pentagon briefing, the spokesman was vague on the mission of the troops but stressed that they were not advising and assisting friendly forces much like similar teams embedded in Iraq and Syria. After some back and forth with reporters on the semantics of how to characterize the troops, Davis said it was appropriate to call them an "intelligence support team. We have a small number of people who have been providing intelligence support."

A soldier from Yemen (far right) and another from Greece (third from left) train alongside U.S. nfantry officer students on a dismounted patrol on Oct. 3, 2012, at Fort Eustis, Virginia.​

Davis said that the U.S. troops were supporting forces of the United Arab Emirates, but in a sign of the complexity of Yemen's civil war, forces of Yemen's embattled government and troops from Saudi Arabia were also involved in the drive to oust al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula from Mukalla. The Saudi Embassy in Washington said in a statement "Saudi forces are also on the ground alongside the UAE forces in Mukalla and that it is a Saudi-led Arab Coalition that is fighting AQAP alongside the U.S. military contingent on the ground." The U.S. National Counter-Terrorism Center has described the terror group as "a Sunni extremist group based in Yemen that has orchestrated numerous high-profile attacks" against the U.S. It was the organization that sent Nigerian-born Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab on a Northwest Airlines flight over Detroit on Christmas day 2009 to detonate explosives in his pants but other passengers foiled the attack.

The group's most prominent operative was the charismatic Anwar al-Awlaki, a dual U.S. and Yemeni citizen, who communicated with Army Maj. Nidal Hasan prior to Hasan's shooting rampage at Fort Hood, Texas, in 2009, killing 13 people. Al-Awlaki was killed by a U.S. drone strike in Yemen in September 2011. Davis said that the organization remained fixated on attacking the U.S. "This is of great interest to us. It does not serve our interests to have a terrorist organization in charge of a port city, and so we are assisting in that," he said. Yemen's civil war has killed more than 6,200 people, displaced more than 2.5 million and caused a humanitarian catastrophe in one of the world's poorest countries, according to the United Nations and human rights groups.

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[easyt65]

The 'US' didn't send more troops off to war... OBAMA did....

All hail the Nobel Peace Prize Winner!