Mission failure al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula United States United Arab Emirates Ansar al-Shariah campaign (2011–14) Houthi rebellion (2014) Bombings and terrorist attacks in Yemen Houthi missile and drone attacks in Yemen Houthi attacks on Saudi Arabia Houthi attacks on the United Arab Emirates U.S. raids on al-Qaeda Military operations Diplomacy Effects The Raid on Yakla was a joint United States/United Arab Emirates military operation carried out on January 29, 2017 in al-Ghayil, a village in the Yakla area of the Al Bayda Governorate of central Yemen,[10][11] during the Yemeni civil war.

[12] The mission's goal was to gather intelligence on al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula, and to target the group's leader, Qasim al-Raymi.

In 2011, AQAP created Ansar Al-Sharia (AAS), a Yemen-based affiliate focused on waging an insurgency rather than international attacks on the West.

As of early 2017, AQAP and AAS were currently in a struggle for territorial control with the Houthi/Saleh forces in the governorates of al-Bayda, Shebwa, Marib, Jawf and Taiz.

[23] A number of the eighteen sons of patriarch Sheikh Ahmed Nasser al-Dhahab have joined AQAP or its armed affiliate organizations, including Tariq, Qaid, and Nabil.

Tariq died while leading an AAS takeover of Rada'a, which also claimed the life of his half-brother Hizam, fighting on the other side.

[23] Prior to the raid, Abdelrauf al-Dhahab held a five-day meeting with military officials in the US-backed government of Abdrabbuh Mansur Hadi.

"[26] The Obama administration refused to approve the raid; the Guardian reported that it had been reviewed several times, citing an anonymous government source.

Further, Kahl stated, "Obama made no decisions on this before leaving office, believing it represented escalation of U.S. involvement in Yemen.

"[28] In a report for the Washington Post, multiple defense sources stated they expected the Trump Administration to more readily approve similar operations.

[30] Mattis, along with General Joseph Dunford, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, presented the plan; then-National Security Advisor Michael Flynn was also at the dinner.

[32] At dawn on January 29,[34] several dozen[16] commandos from the Naval Special Warfare Development Group (DEVGRU), as well as operators from the United Arab Emirates, were landed by a pair of MV-22 Osprey tiltrotor aircraft near the home of al-Qaeda leader Abdul Rauf al-Dhahab in the mountainous Yakla region of Al-Bayda.

[12] The DEVGRU team "found itself dropping onto a reinforced al Qaeda base defended by landmines, snipers, and a larger than expected contingent of heavily armed Islamist extremists.

The Osprey was subsequently destroyed by a friendly airstrike carried out by a Harrier jet to avoid any of the crashed aircraft's sensitive electronics from being captured by the enemy.

The audio recording purportedly features al-Raymi's voice referring to Trump, who authorized the raid, as the "fool of the White House" who "got slapped" early on in his role as Commander in Chief.

[10] The Bureau of Investigative Journalism (BIJ), a London-based NGO, found that the operation went "dreadfully wrong" and that, according to local villagers, 25 civilians, who were not members of AQAP, were killed; this included nine children under the age of 13, with the youngest being a three-month-old baby.

Nawar was the daughter of the American-Yemeni propagandist, and operative for al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP) Anwar al-Awlaki, who was killed by a US drone strike in September 2011, after the US government made terrorism allegations against him.

[50] Nora's older brother, Abdulrahman al-Awlaki who also held American citizenship, was killed when he was 16 by a US drone strike in October 2011 while eating dinner.

[52] During the raid, one American commando from DEVGRU (commonly known as SEAL Team Six), Chief Petty Officer William Owens, was killed.

"[55] A national security adviser in the administration of former President George W. Bush, Juan Zarate, said that even though the raid had not killed al-Rimi, it could still yield smaller victories: "Certainly, if the goal is to capture the leader of al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula, that didn't happen.

"[7] New York Times journalist David Sanger, who covered the raid, said on February 2, "It’s hard to call this much of a success yet, because we don’t know what the value was of the information they were trying to exploit, which came mostly from computers and cell phones.

"[56] Spicer asserted that the raid "gathered an unbelievable amount of intelligence that will prevent the potential deaths or attacks on American soil.

"[57] Richard Atwood, also of the International Crisis Group, said that an operation like the Yakla raid is more likely to radicalize Yemeni tribesmen, strengthen the hand of al-Qaida, and "feed anti-Americanism", particularly when civilians are killed.

[38] The New York Times, citing U.S. officials, reported, "Yemen has withdrawn permission for the United States to run Special Operations ground missions against suspected terrorist groups in the country.

[66] According to a senior U.S. military official, Navy SEALs attempted to conduct another raid inside Yemen in early March 2017, but aborted the mission at the last minute.