US Launched the Missiles in Abyan?
What a disaster!!! What a stupid and reckless move in such a volatile place. Did they rely on Yemeni intel sources? Could they be that stupid? Well you got duped President Obama, 14 kids are dead and Qasim al Reimi “escaped,” which in itself was entirely predictable. Saleh is brilliant tactician. He is wedded to the US now, despite the fact that he is a war criminal.
I thought the US has satellites that can zoom in, didn’t they see it was families? Or they didn’t care? What I find so shocking is the US federal government’s inability to learn over time or through successive administrations. The Saleh regime is a mafia and he is con artist incarnate. Thats what I wrote, in those exact terms, in the first Yemen article, Unicorns and Democracy in 2004. Its been that way from the Cole bombing to date.
I’m so sad that the US is complicit in the murders of the 14 children, but the Yemenis are going to be pissed. The die is cast. Its over. The justifiably discontented populace will lose faith entirely in the US and platitudes about justice and democracy, and they will turn to who- Iran, the fanatical Islamists, drug dealers, Chavez, pirates and so on while Saleh continues his slaughter in the north and the south.
Fox News The U.S. has launched two missile strikes against Al Qaeda targets in Yemen, two U.S. officials told Fox News, signaling an escalation of the Obama administration’s fight against the terrorist organization.
The politically sensitive strikes Thursday, first reported by ABC News, supplement efforts already under way by the government of Yemen to go after Al Qaeda in the country, the officials told Fox News, speaking on condition of anonymity due to the sensitivity of the operation.
Such an operation is particularly sensitive in Yemen. “It’s very difficult for Yemen to ask the U.S. for help given the nature of their population and its views about the West,” one official said. “And the U.S. doesn’t want to compromise their ability to ask for help.”
The United States has faced similar concerns in Pakistan, where reports of U.S. drone attacks on militants are common — but never acknowledged publicly by the U.S. or by Pakistan.
In the new attacks, cruise missiles on Obama’s orders hit a suspected Al Qaeda training camp north of Sanaa, the capital, and another site, where terrorists were thought to be plotting an attack on the U.S., ABC News reported, citing unnamed administration officials.
A Yemeni official contacted by ABC News insisted that the attacks were carried out by Yemen, not the United States. Yemeni forces also reportedly have targeted Al Qaeda in raids conducted at three locations.
The original report was at ABC News and notes 120 were killed including many civilians.
Obama Ordered U.S. Military Strike on Yemen Terrorists
Cruise Missiles Launched Thursday Hit Two Suspected al Qaeda Sites; Major Escalation of US Efforts Against Terrorists
By BRIAN ROSS, RICHARD ESPOSITO, MATTHEW COLE, LUIS MARTINEZ and KIRIT RADIA
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On orders from President Barack Obama, the U.S. military launched cruise missiles early Thursday against two suspected al-Qaeda sites in Yemen, administration officials told ABC News in a report broadcast on ABC World News with Charles Gibson.
One of the targeted sites was a suspected al Qaeda training camp north of the capitol, Sanaa, and the second target was a location where officials said “an imminent attack against a U.S. asset was being planned.”
The Yemen attacks by the U.S. military represent a major escalation of the Obama administration’s campaign against al Qaeda.
In his speech about added troops for Afghanistan earlier this month, President Obama made a brief reference to Yemen, saying, “Where al Qaeda and its allies attempt to establish a foothold — whether in Somalia or Yemen or elsewhere — they must be confronted by growing pressure and strong partnerships.”
Until tonight, American officials had hedged about any U.S. role in the strikes against Yemen and news reports from Yemen attributed the attacks to the Yemen Air Force.
President Obama placed a call after the strikes to “congratulate” the President of Yemen, Ali Abdallah Salih, on his efforts against al Qaeda, according to White House officials.
A Yemeni official at the country’s embassy in Washington insisted to ABC News Friday that the Thursday attacks were “planned and executed” by the Yemen government and police.
Along with the two U.S. cruise missile attacks, Yemen security forces carried out raids in three separate locations. As many as 120 people were killed in the three raids, according to reports from Yemen, and opposition leaders said many of the dead were innocent civilians.
American officials said the missile strikes were intended to disrupt a growing threat from the al Qaeda branch in Yemen, which claims to coordinate terror attacks against neighboring Saudi Arabia.
The al Qaeda presence in Yemen has been steadily growing in the last two years. “Al Qaeda generally has been pushed into these ungoverned areas, whether it is the Afghanistan-Pakistan border area [or Yemen],” said Richard Barrett, coordinator of the U.N.’s Taliban al-Qaeda Sancitions Monitoring Committee. “I think many of the key people have moved to Yemen.”
The U.S. embassy was attacked by suspected al Qaeda gunmen last year.
And the presumed leader of al Qaeda in Yemen, Qaaim al-Raymi, has frequently appeared on internet videos, offering an alternative to the training camps in Pakistan and Afghanistan.
“If they can go to Yemen just as easily or easier and get training there and come out again,” said Barrett, “all your efforts in Pakistan and Afghanistan are a waste of time.”
Qaaim al-Raymi was considered a prime target of the attack Thursday but was reported to have escaped the attack. However, U.S. officials believe one of his top deputies may have been killed.
