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U.S. Defense Chief Warns of Al Qaeda’s Gains in Yemen U.S. Defense Chief Warns of Al Qaeda’s Gains in Yemen
(about 11 hours later)
TOKYO — Al Qaeda’s affiliate in Yemen is seizing territory, exploiting the recent turmoil in the country to capture areas in what has become a broad expansion by the Sunni extremist group, Defense Secretary Ashton B. Carter of the United States said on Wednesday. TOKYO — The new American defense secretary acknowledged Wednesday that Al Qaeda’s affiliate in Yemen had exploited the tumult partly created by the Saudi-led airstrikes there to capture territory, in what has become a broad expansion by the Sunni extremist group.
Calling the situation “obviously very unsettled,” Mr. Carter said that the war in Yemen had left a number of groups vying for power, including Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula, also known as A.Q.A.P., an enemy of the United States. Calling the situation “obviously very unsettled,” Defense Secretary Ashton B. Carter said that the war in Yemen had left a number of groups vying for power, including Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula, also known as A.Q.A.P., an enemy of the United States.
“A.Q.A.P.,” Mr. Carter said, “has seized the opportunity of the disorder there and the collapse of the central government.”“A.Q.A.P.,” Mr. Carter said, “has seized the opportunity of the disorder there and the collapse of the central government.”
He warned that the group had “ambition to strike Western targets including the United States” and said that American counterterrorism efforts had been stymied by the fall of the Yemeni government. He warned that the group had “ambition to strike Western targets including the United States,” and said that American counterterrorism efforts had been stymied by the fall of the Yemeni government.
“Obviously it’s always easier to conduct counterterrorism when there’s a stable government in place,” Mr. Carter said. “That circumstance obviously doesn’t exist in Yemen.” “It’s always easier to conduct counterterrorism when there’s a stable government in place,” Mr. Carter said. “That circumstance obviously doesn’t exist in Yemen.”
Mr. Carter’s comments, which came during a news conference with his Japanese counterpart during a visit to Tokyo, are a tacit acknowledgement of the complications that have arisen since the start of the military offensive led by Saudi Arabia against the Houthi rebels in Yemen two weeks ago. The Houthis, whom the Saudis have portrayed as Iranian proxies, have taken the capital and driven out the president. Mr. Carter’s comments, which came during a news conference with his Japanese counterpart during a visit to Tokyo, were a tacit acknowledgment of the complications that have arisen since the start of the military offensive led by Saudi Arabia against the Houthi rebels in Yemen two weeks ago. The Houthis, whom the Saudis have portrayed as Iranian proxies, have taken the capital, Sana, driven the president into exile and are basically in control of Aden, the country’s southern port and No. 2 city.
Saudi officials have maintained that their military action is aimed at driving the Houthis, from northern Yemen, out of territory they had captured in the past eight months and restoring Yemen’s exiled president, Abdu Rabbu Mansour Hadi, to power. Saudi officials have maintained that their military action is aimed at driving the Houthis, from northern Yemen, out of territory they have captured in the past eight months and restoring the president, Abdu Rabbu Mansour Hadi, to power.
Thus far the United States has backed the Saudi effort; Mr. Carter said on Wednesday that the United States was expediting deliveries of weapons to Saudi Arabia, echoing similar promises made the day before in Riyadh by Antony J. Blinken, the deputy secretary of state. “We are providing them with intelligence” and surveillance, Mr. Carter said, “and with some resupply of equipment and munitions.” He said that he had spoken with the Saudi minister of defense the day before to reiterate American support for the Saudi effort in Yemen. The United States has backed the Saudi effort; Mr. Carter said on Wednesday that the United States was expediting deliveries of weapons to Saudi Arabia, echoing similar promises made the day before in Riyadh by Antony J. Blinken, the deputy secretary of state. “We are providing them with intelligence” and surveillance, Mr. Carter said, “and with some resupply of equipment and munitions.”
But that effort also has come with consequences, not least of which is an even more resurgent Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula, which has used the breathing room provided by the Saudi assault on the Houthis — foes of A.Q.A.P. — to take territory. But that effort also has come with consequences, notably the resurgence of the Qaeda affiliate., which has exploited the mayhem exacerbated by the Saudi assault on the Houthis — foes of A.Q.A.P. — to take territory.
The Houthis captured the capital, Sana, in September, and have since defended their military actions as part of an effort to overturn a corrupt political order in Yemen. The Houthis, who are allied with forces loyal to Yemen’s former autocratic president, Ali Abdullah Saleh, have so far seemed undeterred by the Saudi air campaign.The Houthis captured the capital, Sana, in September, and have since defended their military actions as part of an effort to overturn a corrupt political order in Yemen. The Houthis, who are allied with forces loyal to Yemen’s former autocratic president, Ali Abdullah Saleh, have so far seemed undeterred by the Saudi air campaign.
The fighting and the airstrikes have led to widespread civilian suffering in Yemen, the Middle East’s poorest country, and have bought warnings from international relief agencies that a humanitarian disaster is unfolding. More than 540 people have been killed and 1,700 wounded by the fighting since March 19, an official with the World Health Organization told reporters in Geneva on Tuesday. The fighting and the airstrikes have led to widespread civilian suffering in Yemen, the Middle East’s poorest country, and have bought warnings from international relief agencies that a humanitarian disaster is unfolding. The World Health Organization said Wednesday that more than 640 people had been killed in Yemen over the past few weeks, more than 2,200 wounded and more than 330,000 displaced.
The turmoil in Yemen has also upended the Obama administration’s counterterrorism efforts there. Last month, before the Saudis intervened, the United States evacuated 125 Special Operations advisers from Yemen amid the fighting, dealing a significant setback to American counterterrorism intelligence-gathering in a crucial country. Since then, the situation in Yemen has become even more precarious. The turmoil also has upended the Obama administration’s counterterrorism efforts in Yemen. Last month, even before the Saudis intervened, the United States evacuated 125 Special Operations advisers from Yemen.
Mr. Carter was in Japan for the first stop of his first trip to the Asia-Pacific region as the new secretary of defense and had scheduled a series of meetings with the Japanese that were designed to showcase the Obama administration’s much talked-about pivot to Asia. But, as has been the case just about every time a senior American official has traveled to Asia to talk up those plans, turmoil in the Middle East again demonstrated that that region was not yielding the stage anytime soon, no matter what senior Obama administration officials have hoped. Mr. Carter’s remarks on Yemen came as he visited Japan, the first stop of his first trip to the Asia-Pacific region as the secretary of defense.
Nonetheless, Mr. Carter carried on with his meetings on new guidelines to govern the long-running military alliance between the United States and Japan, meant to help counter a newly assertive China. In Washington, a senior military official on Wednesday described new details about the United States military assistance to the Saudi-led air campaign.
The United States is flying Predator and Reaper reconnaissance drones over Yemen, and transmitting the information to a 20-person American military coordination team in Riyadh led by Maj. Gen. Carl E. Mundy III, the deputy commander of Marines in the Middle East, the official said.
General Mundy’s team was dispatched to the Saudi capital to help provide information — “battlefield awareness,” the official called it — to Saudi military planners. Sending an officer of General Mundy’s rank and experience reflected the importance the Pentagon assigns to the Saudi-led operation.
While the Americans are not providing specific targeting information, the official said they are helping designate “no-strike areas” such as mosques and refugee camps — an important role as Saudi warplanes had been blamed in the campaign’s early days for killing Yemeni civilians in some of their airstrikes.
In addition, the United States recently began flying one daily aerial refueling flight for Saudi F-15 and United Arab Emirates F-16 attack planes involved in the fight, said the official, who spoke on condition of anonymity to provide confidential operational details. The refuelings take place outside of Yemeni air space for the fewer than dozen strike missions each day, the official said.
The official confirmed that some pre-existing orders of ammunition and other equipment, such as guidance kits for precision-guided bombs, would be accelerated. But the official downplayed the idea that the United States was sending a new flood of weaponry to the Saudis.
Moreover, the official said only small pockets of the coastal city of Aden remained in pro-government hands, and that Houthi fighters were closing in on them. “Aden’s essentially gone,” the official said.
While Saudi ground forces have massed along the northern border with Yemen, and Pakistan has received requests from Saudi officials for military aid, including ground troops, the senior American official said there was no indication any type of ground incursion was imminent.
A second American official with close contacts in the Pakistan Army said that there was little appetite within Pakistan’s senior officer corps to deploy troops to Yemen at a time when Pakistan is consumed with a major operation in its own territory, in North Waziristan.
When asked what ground force, working with the air campaign, would be potent enough to reverse the Houthi advances in the south, the first official said, “Your guess is as good as mine.”