On Sunday, Jan 29, Seal Team Six dropped into Yemen to conduct an operation with UAE special forces by their side. Details are still unclear, but the motive has been variously described as “intelligence” (including computers), and senior al-Qaeda leadership. What we do know is that there were a large number of casualties. An exact death count is difficult to come by, but it looks like there were a dozen, perhaps over 30 civilians killed. The Pentagon claims 14 combatants were killed and one or more of them may be women. Among those killed was a newborn, and the 8 year old pictured above. There are reports that other children were among the dead and there were several injuries.
NBC seems to have pretty good coverage with details. Amy Goodman at Democracy Now discussed the incident with spoke with Jeremy Scahill from the Intercept, Baraa Shiban from Repreive and Pardiss Kebriaei from the Center for Constitutional Rights. They have all reported on or worked extensively with issues related to Yemen. If you want a really good look at this incident in context, you should go there. Here’s a flavor:
JEREMY SCAHILL: Well, first of all, let’s begin with what we understand about how Trump signed off on this covert mission. We understand that in addition to some of his—some military officials, and of course conferring with General James Mattis, that Trump made the decision to greenlight this Navy SEAL raid over dinner with people like Steve Bannon, his white supremacist top adviser, and Jared Kushner, his son-in-law, who has absolutely no experience with these kinds of activities. [...]
Now, as it relates to this specific raid, we understand that the official story is that the Navy SEALs were being sent in to target senior al-Qaeda people, that they were going to snatch phones and computers and access this valuable intel. And, in fact, we have to remember that, almost always, the initial official responses—and it can go on for days and weeks or months—is either full of half-truths or outright lies. The initial statement on this was that it was this epically successful raid, that no civilians were killed. Yes, a Navy SEAL was killed in a gun battle, but it was worth it to protect the United States and our security, because they obtained all this valuable intel. [...]
And, you know, Trump did say, and General Michael Flynn, his national security adviser, they both said, in kind of a despicably celebratory way, that the families of terrorists are fair game and can be killed.
— Democracy Now
Among the dead was a new-born whose identity has not been reported, 8-year old Nawar (Nora) al-Awlaki pictured above and several women and non-combatants. Nawar is the third US citizen from the al-Awlaki family to have been killed in a US operation. She was a US citizen at birth based on the rules for acquiring citizenship through a parent. In her case, her father, Anwar al-Awlaki, who was born in New Mexico, but had fled to Yemen in 2004.
Anwar was a preacher who developed a online following via youtube videos and blog posts. It’s believed that several people who went on to commit acts of terrorism listened to al-Awlaki’s lectures. This included the Fort Hood shooter, the 2005 London bombers and possibly one of the 9/11 hijackers. Though the US claims al-Awlaki directed terrorist operations, there are some who question that, and say he was purely a propagandist for al-Qaeda. President Obama ordered a drone strike to kill Anwar in September 2011. Another US citizen (Samir Khan) was also killed in that strike.
Two weeks later, in October, a child, Abdulrahman al-Awlaki, was killed in another drone strike. He was Anwar’s 16 year old son and a US citizen born in Denver. This strike killed nine others including Abdulrahman’s 17 year old cousin, and was also ordered by Obama. Abdulrahman had reportedly run away from his house without telling anyone. He wanted to find his father. When the White House was asked why Abdulrahman had been killed, even though he was not involved in terrorism in any way, Obama’s press secretary Robert Gibbs said he should have “had a more responsible father”. The US government later admitted that Abdulrahman’s killing was a “mistake”. The intended target was not at that location.
Though as Scahill says, there’s reason to be skeptical of many official statements on this raid, it’s possible that some officials hoped to capture or kill a man named Qassim al-Rimi. He is alive and seems to be taunting Trump. The fact remains, several civilians were killed in this raid. For the record, Seal Team 6 has been part of several operations with unexplained civilian casualties, and there have been reports of atrocities committed by the team as well (including an attempt at a beheading).
This is how the family describes what happened last Sunday:
The girl’s grandfather and Yemen’s former agricultural minister, Nasser al-Awlaki, told NBC that Nora had gone to stay at her mother’s house, which is where the attack took place. “They entered the house and killed everybody in it, including all the women,” he said. As for Nora, “a bullet struck her in her neck at 2:30 past midnight.” He said she died two hours later. — New York Magazine
The Pentagon has said many civilians may have been killed by fire from the Harrier jets and helicopter gunships called in to assist ground forces.
Here’s the thing. These ground/drone/air operations have a history of errors and fumbles that result in the deaths of innocents, often children. People involved in them are so desensitized to the killing, they refer to them as bug-splats, or mowing the lawn. Many of us repeatedly critiqued the Obama administration’s frequent use of these operations and the civilian casualties associated with them (often children). Though the Obama administration did reverse some Bush era policies (water-boarding/torture) and made an attempt to close Guantanamo, several other questionable programs (including pervasive surveillance) were left in place. The failure to prosecute Bush administration officials for war crimes virtually guarantees that future administrations will do the same. In fact, the Obama administration has provided material assistance to the Saudis in their continuing war on various factions in Yemen. That includes supplying cluster bombs and refueling Saudi jets on their way to bomb a funeral. This has raised concerns within the US military as to whether we are a co-belligerent and party to war crimes committed by Saudi forces.
So while I’m glad that we are questioning the Trump administration’s use and abuse of our armed forces and weapons of war, I am also at a loss to explain why so many here looked the other way when Obama was doing the same. I am ashamed that we seem to be interested in this particular incident largely because it casts Trump in a poor light. We were not as interested in it when it was just about the deaths of a dozen or 30 civilians at the hands of our soldiers and allies (UAE special forces participated in the raid).
It’s almost as if we don’t care about civilian casualties or the broader human cost of our many wars, we’d just prefer it was a Democrat issuing the orders.
PS. Brett Wilkins published a diary on Nawar al-Awlaki’s death a few days ago which was barely noticed, and we did have a diary on the civilian casualties the day after the operation was reported.
The raid, some details of which were first reported by The Washington Post, also destroyed much of the village of Yakla, and left senior Yemeni government officials seething. Yemen’s foreign minister, Abdul Malik Al Mekhlafi, condemned the raid on Monday in a post on his official Twitter account as “extrajudicial killings.” — NY Times