[Peace-discuss] Who do we BLAME ?

[Szoke, Ron]

United States Ramps Up Airstrikes Against Al Qaeda in Yemen

By ERIC SCHMITT<https://www.nytimes.com/by/eric-schmitt>  NYTMARCH 3, 2017

Continue reading the main story<https://www.nytimes.com/2017/03/03/world/middleeast/yemen-us-airstrikes-al-qaeda.html?hpw&rref=world&action=click&pgtype=Homepage&module=well-region&region=bottom-well&WT.nav=bottom-well#story-continues-1>Share This Page

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WASHINGTON — The United States military on Friday carried out a second night of airstrikes against suspected Qaeda terrorists in Yemen<http://topics.nytimes.com/top/news/international/countriesandterritories/yemen/index.html?inline=nyt-geo> in what Pentagon officials said was part of a larger campaign to roll back territorial gains the group has made in the past two years.

It was the most intense series of strikes ever against Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula<http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/organizations/a/al_qaeda_in_the_arabian_peninsula/index.html?inline=nyt-org>, or A.Q.A.P. In all of 2016, the United States conducted a total of 38 strikes in Yemen, according to the Foundation for Defense of Democracies’ Long War Journal<http://www.longwarjournal.org/>. Yet in the last two days, armed Reaper drones and attack planes conducted more than 30 strikes against Qaeda militants, equipment and safe houses across south-central Yemen, Capt. Jeff Davis, a Pentagon spokesman, said on Friday.

The escalating offensive against Al Qaeda’s branch in Yemen comes as a bit of a surprise. President Trump pledged during his campaign to accelerate efforts against the Islamic State — mostly in Iraq and Syria — and on Monday the Pentagon submitted its plan to do just that. But during the first weeks of Mr. Trump’s presidency, the Qaeda affiliate in Yemen has emerged as the White House’s most vexing terrorism challenge.

The Trump administration has been forced to defend itself against assertions that a Special Operations raid<https://www.nytimes.com/2017/01/29/world/middleeast/american-commando-killed-in-yemen-in-trumps-first-counterterror-operation.html> in January of a Qaeda safe house in central Yemen — during which a member of the Navy’s SEAL Team 6 was killed — was a failure because little meaningful intelligence material had been seized. A military investigation was also ordered to determine whether as many as two dozen civilians, including 10 children, died in the assault.
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