Despite
the growing reports of failure – and despite the death of a Navy
SEAL, and the destruction of a $70 million Osprey aircraft –
Trump’s press secretary Sean Spicer has continued to insist that
the mission was a “successful operation by all standards.”
by
Namir Shabibi and Nasser al Sane
Part
4 - An 11-year-old is the first hit
His son
Ahmed was the first casualty. According to al Dahab the 11-year-old
was woken by the commotion outside and went to see what was going on.
“When my son Ahmed saw them, he couldn’t tell that they were
soldiers because it was dark,” he said. “He asked them
‘Who are you?’ but the men shot him. He was the first killed. No
one thought that marines would descend on our homes to kill us, kill
our children and kill our women.”
Tribal
leaders Abdelraouf al Dahab and his brother came out to confront the
soldiers and were shot dead, committee member Sadiq al Jawfi said.
Local sources say they were AQAP members, and press reports released
in the initial aftermath of the raid suggested that Abdelraouf and
Sultan were among the primary targets of the operation. 80-year-old
Saif al Jawfi, who also had al Qaeda connections according to AQAP,
came out to see the commotion. He too was killed.
SEAL Team 6
attacked the home of 65-year-old Abdallah Mabkhout al Ameri,
surrounding it and opened fire indiscriminately, Abdelilah al Dahab
and other witnesses claimed. “When people heard the gunshots and
missiles, local men rushed out of their homes to find out what was
going on,” he said.
Three
witnesses said the commandos shot at everyone who left their homes.
In these lawless parts of Yemen every home has a Kalashnikov and the
residents reached for their guns “to defend their homes and
their honour,” Abdelilah al Dahab said.
The
villagers say 38-year-old mother of seven, Fatim Saleh al Ameri was
fatally shot by special operators while trying to flee with her
two-year-old son Mohammed. “We pulled him out from his mother’s
lap. He was covered in her blood,” said 11-year-old Basil Ahmed
Abad al-Zouba, whose 17-year-old brother was killed.
As the
firefight ensued, helicopter gunships appeared and “shot at
everything”, including at homes and people fleeing, Sadiq al
Jawfi and other witnesses said. Fahad Ali al Ameri woke up to the
gunfire. “I was woken up after midnight by the bombing of the
helicopters. There were soldiers on the ground shooting at us. They
started shooting at us with machine gun fire.” He says a
missile fired at his home, killing his three-month-old daughter as
she lay asleep in her crib.
The al Ameri
family was particularly badly hit. Abdallah, 65, who had survived the
attack on his wedding party three years earlier, was killed alongside
his 25-year-old daughter Fatima and 38-year-old son Mohammed. Three
of Mohammed’s four children also died – Aisha, 4, Khadija, 7, and
Hussein, 5. A further nine members of the extended family were
killed.
At some
stage, al Qaeda militants who had encamped in the nearby Masharif and
Sharia mountains descended to engage the US commandos in a fight
which would last over two hours. AQAP say 14 of its men died in
total: six villagers and eight others.
The
eight-year-old daughter of the late radical American preacher Anwar
al Awlaqi, who was visiting her uncle Abdelilah al Dahab, was hiding
in a room when it was attacked by the gunships, her uncle said. “Some
of the gunfire went through the windows and Nawar was injured in her
neck,” he said.
The girl
would not survive. “We tried to save her but we couldn’t do
anything for her,” said Abdelilah al Dahab. “She was
injured around 2.30am and bled until she died at around dawn
prayers.”
US special
operatives made an exit from the village at around the same time, say
villagers, but some air attacks continued.
In the days
that followed, conflicting narratives emerged. At first, the
Department of Defense’s Central Command (Centcom) was bullish,
describing the raid as “one in a series of aggressive moves
against terrorist planners in Yemen.”
Defense
Secretary James Mattis gave a statement honouring the soldier who
died. Chief Petty Officer Owens, 36, “gave his full measure for
our nation, and in performing his duty, he upheld the noblest
standard of military service,” he said.
As details
about civilian casualties emerged – most notably that of
eight-year-old Nawar al Awlaqi, whose photograph was circulated –
the tone was softened. It was “concluded regrettably that
civilian non-combatants were likely killed in the midst of a
firefight during a raid in Yemen Jan. 29,” said a statement
released on February 1. “Casualties may include children.”
Two days
later the Pentagon released a video showing a man building bombs
which it said had been discovered in the raid. Within hours it was
removed from the Pentagon’s website’s after people pointed out
the same video had been published online in 2007.
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