Last Friday, the Yemen Times reported that United States military spokesman Captain Jeff Davis said in a statement, that the U.S. had conducted more than 20 airstrikes in Abyan, al-Baida and Shabwa provinces over the course of 24 hours.
On Thursday March 4, 2017, US forces conducted a series of airstrikes against purported Al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP) militants and infrastructure in the provinces of Abyan, Al-Baida and Shabwa.
"More than 20 strikes targeted AQAP militants, equipment and infrastructure in the Yemeni governorates of Abyan, Baida and Shabwa," Pentagon spokesman Navy Captain Jeff Davis said in a statement.
The strikes were conducted in partnership with the government of Yemen, and were coordinated with President (Abedrabbo Mansour) Hadi." Added Davis.
20 US forces airstrikes against AQAP militants and infrastructure in 24 hours, Yasser Rayes, Yemen Times
On the question of whether to call them provinces or governorates, I do not know, so I have followed the example of the Yemen Times.
I take these multiple airstrikes as the opening of a U.S. war in Yemen. A granting of authority to military commanders, by a President, to launch military strikes on their own, is essentially going to war.
How Donald Trump can get away with taking us to war, with no one noticing, at a time we had numerous news articles noticing a misspelling in his tweets, I do not know.
Setting aside, for the moment, the subject of going to war in Yemen, Distractify says that the misspelling in the tweets, on the subject of investigating Nancy Pelosi for her ties to Russia, was the problem. I suspect that Distractify might be seeing the problem in slightly the wrong place, myself.
Later in the afternoon, the president took to Twitter again. This time to call for an investigation into Nancy Pelosi, Minority Leader of the House, for her ties with Russia. The problem? It took him three attempts because he can't spell "hereby."
Donald Trump Misspelled This Word Twice In A Row And Americans Are Mortified On His Behalf, Distractify
Back in February, when Donald Trump was going to twitter to deflect criticism of his first known counterterrorism raid in Yemen, which killed some 30 civilians, the United Nations launched an appeal to collect $2.1 billion to help 12 million people in Yemen avoid famine.
The United Nations and humanitarian partners today launched an international appeal for $2.1 billion to provide life-saving assistance to 12 million people in Yemen in 2017 – the largest-ever humanitarian response plan for the war-torn country.
“Two years of war have devastated Yemen… Without international support, they may face the threat of famine in the course of 2017 and I urge donors to sustain and increase their support to our collective response,” said UN Emergency Relief Coordinator Stephen O'Brien in a press release on the launch of the Humanitarian Response Plan for Yemen in Geneva.
“Humanitarian partners are ready to respond. But they need timely, unimpeded access, and adequate resources, to meet the humanitarian needs wherever they arise,” said Mr. O'Brien, who is also the Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs.
He noted that since March 2015, violent conflict and disregard by all parties to the conflict for their responsibility to protect civilians have created a vast protection crisis in Yemen and millions of people face threats to their safety and basic human rights every day. In addition, deliberate war tactics are accelerating the collapse of key institutions and the economy, thereby exacerbating pre-existing vulnerabilities.
Yemen: UN, partners seek $2.1 billion to stave off famine in 2017, UN News Centre
Why the United States is going to war in Yemen now, when what Yemen really needs is humanitarian relief for millions of people, I do not know.
On Monday, the New York Times reported that United States airstrikes had hit Yemen for the fifth consecutive night. And also, that U.S. military spokesman Captain Jeff Davis said that an airstrike had killed former Guantanamo prisoner Yasir Ali Abdallah al Silmi.
For a fifth consecutive night, American warplanes and drones on Monday pummeled suspected Qaeda targets in Yemen as the Pentagon said an earlier attack in the country had killed a former prisoner held at the United States detention center at Guantánamo Bay, Cuba.
Capt. Jeff Davis, a Pentagon spokesman, said an airstrike last Thursday — the first night of a larger Pentagon campaign to roll back gains made by Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula, or A.Q.A.P. — killed the former detainee, who was using the name Yasir Ali Abdallah al Silmi. While at Guantánamo, he was held as Detainee No. 679 and went by the name Mohammed Tahar, according to military records.
Including an airstrike overnight on Monday that Captain Davis said killed seven Qaeda fighters, the United States has conducted more than 40 attacks across central and southern Yemen in the past week. By comparison, the military carried out 41 strikes in all of 2012, the most in a single year against the Qaeda affiliate in Yemen.
Donald Trump ended up tweeting about this. Apparently he heard about it from Fox, and not from his military or intelligence services.
At Guantanamo, al Silmi had been known as Mohammed Taher. How the U.S. military knows that the person they had known as Mohammed Taher for nearly 8 years, while they imprisoned him, is the same person as Yasir Ali Abdallah al Silmi, who they have killed, I do not know, and the military has not explained.
Reuters reports that two boys, Ahmed and Mohammed al-Khobze, were said by residents of Yakla village in al-Baida province to have been killed by a U.S. drone strike on Monday, as they walked along a road. This is the same village where nine children, of the al-Ameri, al-Dhahab, and al-Awlaqi families, had been killed by the United States and United Arab Emirates commando attack in late January. Why one small village in Yemen should have so many children killed by the United States, I do not know.
Al-Dhahab family politics in Yemen is complex. But what threat even the adults might have posed to the United States, I do not know either.
Jamestown Organization reports that what we know as “al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula”, might be known in Yemen as the “Sons of the Hadramawt” instead. Why the United States government would prefer a name with “al-Qaeda” in it, over a locally significant name, for purposes of being at war with them, can be very easily guessed.
Lawfare reports on another complexity of the U.S. war in Yemen: there are actually two of them. A war against what is called al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula, going back to 2009, or perhaps 2002. And a partnership with the Saudi-led coalition, in the foreign intervention in the civil war against Houthi rebels and loyalists to Ali Abdullah Saleh, going back to 2015.
Here’s the thing: These two conflicts are largely being fought separately, and the alliances in the war against the Houthis and Saleh are not the same as the alliances in the war against AQAP. That complicates U.S. war efforts, and the January 29 raid brought that complication into sharp relief. While the primary target, AQAP leader Qassim al-Rimi, escaped the raid, U.S. Special Operators did take out Abdulrauf al Dhahab, a brother-in-law of of Anwar al-Awlaqi with deep ties to AQAP. But Dhahab was also a Hadi supporter on the Saudi-backed government’s payroll. Also caught in the January 29 crossfire were local tribal leaders asking Dhahab to mediate a dispute with between them and AQAP. It’s hard to talk about any of these people being on one “side” of the conflict; they’re doing their best to manage local interests and have been caught between competing powers in the area. Their allegiances may be questionable, but they certainly will not be sympathetic to U.S. or Emirati forces after the raid.
The United States Escalates in Yemen, J. Dana Stuster, Lawfare
Why the United States is killing people who are against us in one of our wars in Yemen, but with us in the other, I do not know.
Why one U.S. war at a time shouldn’t be enough, at least in Yemen, I do not know.
Middle East Monitor reports that military forces from the nation of Sudan, and military forces from the United Arab Emirates, have been fighting for control of Aden International Airport in southern Yemen. What the hell Sudan and UAE are doing fighting in Yemen, or which sides they line up on in which wars, even after having read the article, I do not know.
How being either with us or against us could possibly start sounding relatively sane, fifteen years of unending war later, I haven’t a fucking clue.