CENTCOM released the dates and general locations of the last 18 counterterrorism strikes against al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula. Since early 2017, the military has provided few details on the Yemen air campaign, typically only providing an aggregate number and scant information on high-value target strikes.
Two regional combatant commands acknowledged reports of civilian casualties in recent operations.
The US military has conducted 27 counterterrorism strikes in Yemen in 2018, but has only provided complete information on two. One of the strikes hit an AQAP training camp in Hadramout.
Several groups within the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps network have eulogized Saleh al Sammad, the political leader of Yemen’s Houthis.
The military has not produced detailed press releases for any strikes this year, continuing 2017’s limited transparency.
Last week, the Saudi Arabian embassy in Washington D.C. released a nine-page primer on Iran’s continued support to Yemen’s Houthi rebels. Buried within the same document was photographic evidence of Saudi Arabia’s latest charge against Iran: the provision of the Sayyad-2C surface-to-air missile (SAM) to Houthi rebels.
Pro-Houthi media outlets like Yemen News Agency (SABA) reported that at least three types of projectiles were fired into the Kingdom. They include the Burkan-2H, the Qaher-2M, and the Badr-1. Both the Burkan and the Qaher have been used multiple times in the Yemeni theater, while the Badr was only unveiled last week.
Abdel Malek al Houthi, the leader of Yemen’s Houthi insurgent group, again promises to send fighters to battle alongside Hezbollah in any future war with Israel.
The US military has launched 22 airstrikes against al Qaeda int he Arabian Peninsula and the Islamic State’s Yemeni branch, a spokesman told FDD’s Long War Journal.
The United States conducted 131 counterterrorism strikes in Yemen, CENTCOM told FDD’s Long War Journal.
US forces conducted a record 120 strikes in Yemen in 2017 and appears to be operating at a similar tempo thus far in 2018.
The State Department has added Khalid Batarfi, an al Qaeda veteran and senior al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP) leader, to the US government’s list of specially designated global terrorists. Batarfi threatened the US and Jews in a video released by AQAP just yesterday.
CENTCOM identified the AQAP operatives who were killed as “key Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula leaders.” Their responsibilities included “external operations facilitator,” an operative who paves the way for attacks outside of Yemen, an arms facilitator, and a member of its proselytizing council.
Backed by Saudi air power, Yemeni forces are advancing on a number of critical fronts including Yemen’s northern border and western coast.
One of the leaders “planned” the March 2015 Bardo Museum attack in Tunis, which was claimed by the Islamic State. Another serves as Shabaab’s deputy emir.
The pattern of operations in 2017 in what the Obama administration used to call areas outside of active hostilities indicates that the US will continue the reinvigorated air campaign in Pakistan, Yemen, Somalia, and Libya in the coming year.
The Houthis claim the missile used was a Burkan-2H, which recent evidence suggests is Iranian-supplied.
While announcing the strike, US Central Command provided a rare look into the targeting of AQAP’s network. Until now, the US military had provided few details on its efforts during 2017 to defeat the al Qaeda branch.
At the strategic level, if Iran’s provision of ballistic missiles to the Houthi rebels is confirmed, it could be seen as an indicator Tehran’s increased tolerance for risk in a distant conflict theater, one which has sought to weaken Saudi Arabia by any means possible.
The assassination of former Yemeni president Ali Abdullah Saleh follows a strain in the opportunistic cooperation between his forces and the Houthis.
The US Treasury Department designated a counterfeit ring that has procured material and equipment to help finance the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps’ (IRGC) operations in Yemen. This announcement answers an important question about at least one of force’s method of financing its operations in Yemen.
On Nov. 17, The Foundation for Defense of Democracies and FDD’s Long War Journal held an event to discuss the findings from the recently released documents from Osama bin Laden’s compound.
The US has stepped up its air campaign on the Islamic State’s network in Yemen as the group has intensified its attacks on Yemeni security forces in the alternate capital of Aden.
An estimated 60 Islamic State fighters are thought to have been killed in three US strikes that have targeted the group over the past two weeks.
The US Treasury Department and several Gulf States announced today that eight jihadists in Yemen have been designated as terrorists. The newly-sanctioned terrorists serve either the Islamic State’s Yemeni branch, Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula, or both.
The Pentagon announced today that “dozens” of Islamic State jihadists were killed during a strike on two training camps in Yemen. The Islamic State regularly advertises its presence in Yemen, including a camp named after the group’s deceased spokesman.
The strike is the latest in a series that have targeted the entirety of AQAP’s network in the war-torn country.
In addition to the updated strike total for Yemen, the response is interesting as it notes that AQAP operatives are not the only target of the air campaign: the US military is hitting the entirety of the network.
The US military has stepped up its campaign against AQAP, but has not been forthcoming about its targeting of the group as it has in Somalia.
Today’s launch comes less than a week after a similar ballistic missile launch directed at Yanbu, Saudi Arabia.