angelburst29
The Living Force
Within these next two articles, it states that U.S. troops were sent to Yemen about two weeks ago, to help support Yemeni and Emirati forces - battle against al-Qaida militants near the city of Mukalla. There is a separate campaign being led by the Saudi's against the Houthis in which the U.S. is also assisting with midair refueling aircraft and some reconnaissance capabilities.
To add to the confusion (for me, anyway) staged off the Yemen's coast, are U.S. ships from the 13th Marine Expeditionary Unit which include: the USS Boxer, an amphibious assault ship with Marine infantry and aircraft, and two destroyers, the USS Gravely and the USS Gonzalez.
The Saudi's are threatening (if the Peace talks fail) to move forces into Sanaa, the Yemeni Capital. I wonder if this General Asiri is planning, with the help of the Marine's from the 13th Marine Expeditionary Unit, etc. to over power the supporters of the Houthi movement, loyal to the former President Ali Abdullah Saleh, just to secure the Yemeni Capital for the Saudi's?
I don't think, that idea is going to go over "too Big" with the Houthi, if the Saudi's & U.S. plan on - forcing their way to take over their Capital?
US forces now on the ground supporting combat operations in Yemen, Pentagon says
http://www.stripes.com/news/middle-east/us-forces-now-on-the-ground-supporting-combat-operations-in-yemen-pentagon-says-1.408283
May 6, 2016 - U.S. troops have been on the ground in Yemen for approximately two weeks supporting Yemeni and Emirati forces that are fighting a pitched battle against al-Qaida militants near the city of Mukalla, Pentagon officials said Friday.
U.S. military activity in Yemen has been relegated mostly to airstrikes for more than a year following the overthrow of the government in the capital Sanaa by Houthi rebels, but Friday's announcement signals a new level of involvement in the conflict - one that the Pentagon described as temporary without putting a timeline on it.
The U.S. forces are working with Yemeni forces loyal to the old government, not the Houthis, officials said. The officials also said that the actions U.S. forces are engaged in are focused on al-Qaida and are separate from a Saudi-led campaign against the Houthis. The United States has assisted the Saudi-led coalition with midair refueling aircraft and some reconnaissance capabilities.
"We view this as short term," said Navy Capt. Jeff Davis, a Pentagon spokesman.
According to Davis, the United States is providing a "small number" of military personnel as well as medical teams, maritime support and intelligence-gathering assets including airborne surveillance aircraft to the Emirati and Yemeni forces fighting al-Qaida in the Arabian Peninsula or AQAP.
Davis would not describe what type of U.S. personnel were on the ground. U.S. Special Operations forces operated in Yemen in the years after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks but were forced to withdraw when civil war broke out in 2015. The U.S. troops, Davis said, would help advise the Arab ground forces and assist with operational planning.
Aside from the troops on the ground, Davis said ships from the 13th Marine Expeditionary Unit have staged off Yemen's coast. The flotilla of U.S. ships includes the USS Boxer, an amphibious assault ship with Marine infantry and aircraft, and two destroyers, the USS Gravely and the USS Gonzalez.
Davis said the United States has conducted four strikes against al-Qaida militants since April 23, killing 10 militants and wounding one. In March the Pentagon announced it had killed more than 70 al-Qaida fighters in Yemen in one of the largest U.S. strikes conducted in the country since the beginning of operations there. According to a Long War Journal database, the United States has conducted roughly 140 airstrikes in Yemen since 2002.
AQAP has exploited Yemen's civil war to expand its influence throughout the country, officials said, and has also managed to hold a number of key towns since the start of the conflict.
The influx of U.S. troops is intended to help Emirati and Yemeni forces wrest the port city of Mukalla and surrounding areas from AQAP. The group has held the city for the past year and in recent days has been mostly driven out and into the surrounding countryside.
Saudi military threatens to move forces into Sanaa if peace talks fail
http://www.stripes.com/news/middle-east/saudi-military-threatens-to-move-forces-into-sanaa-if-peace-talks-fail-1.409171
May 9, 2016 - Brig. Gen. Ahmed Asiri, a spokesman for the Saudi-led military coalition that has been fighting Houthi rebel forces since last year, said that Saudi Arabia hoped that peace talks in Kuwait, already strained by ongoing violence on the ground, would succeed.
"If not, . . . today we have troops around the capital, and we will get in, because the goal should be achieved, the goal which is securing Yemen," Asiri told reporters during a visit to Washington. "Securing Yemen doesn't mean that we will tolerate to have a militia . . . controlling ballistic missiles, artillery, etc., and threatening our border and threatening the area."
But Saudi Arabia would face a major challenge in trying to advance local troops or members of its mostly Arab military coalition into the Sanaa area, populated by supporters of the Houthi movement and former President Ali Abdullah Saleh.
Asiri's comments came several days after U.S. officials revealed that they had placed a small team of U.S. advisers on the ground around the Yemeni port city of Mukalla, where they are supporting operations in a parallel campaign by Emirati troops fighting alongside Saudi and Yemeni forces against al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP).
The action against AQAP has also drawn the United States deeper into the conflict. The small advisory operation marks the first U.S. military presence since the rebels' takeover of Sanaa in late 2014 prompted Washington to pull remaining American personnel from Yemen and end a long-standing training program for local forces.
Asiri said Saudi and Emirati Special Operations forces, about a company-size unit of each, joined troops loyal to the Yemeni government in fighting the militants in Mukalla. He declined to say how many Saudi troops had been on the ground but said most of them had been withdrawn after the fighting in Mukalla subsided. In addition to the foreign troops in Mukalla, on Yemen's southern coast, 300 Sudanese troops are in Aden, another important port city to the west.
Asiri said the Mukalla operation was just "one step" required against AQAP, which had retreated into remote areas where it is difficult to track, adding that Yemeni forces would need to reassert government control of those areas. "The objective is, once you free the zone, you put the army on the ground, the Yemeni army on the ground, and you start providing services," he said.
The expanded operations against AQAP take place as the United Nations struggles to bring about progress in the Kuwait peace talks. This week, Houthi leaders accused Saudi Arabia of violating a recently announced truce. Asiri, meanwhile, said that rebels had fired two Scud missiles at a Saudi city this week.
"We cannot leave Yemen in a gray area without having a final result," he said. "Otherwise, we will see the Libyan model in Yemen."
The general defended Saudi Arabia's management of its air campaign against the Houthi rebels, saying that strikes were conducted to the standard of NATO operations.
"We take all the measures to conduct surgical airstrikes," he said.
The United Nations has accused the Saudi-led coalition of being responsible for twice the number of civilian casualties as other combatants in Yemen. Asiri said that Saudi and allied forces systematically investigated allegations of civilian casualties but were hindered by a lack of access to Houthi-controlled areas. He did not provide a number for how many of those allegations had been verified.
The United Nations says the conflict has killed more than 6,000 people and triggered a severe humanitarian crisis in an already poor country.
To add to the confusion (for me, anyway) staged off the Yemen's coast, are U.S. ships from the 13th Marine Expeditionary Unit which include: the USS Boxer, an amphibious assault ship with Marine infantry and aircraft, and two destroyers, the USS Gravely and the USS Gonzalez.
The Saudi's are threatening (if the Peace talks fail) to move forces into Sanaa, the Yemeni Capital. I wonder if this General Asiri is planning, with the help of the Marine's from the 13th Marine Expeditionary Unit, etc. to over power the supporters of the Houthi movement, loyal to the former President Ali Abdullah Saleh, just to secure the Yemeni Capital for the Saudi's?
I don't think, that idea is going to go over "too Big" with the Houthi, if the Saudi's & U.S. plan on - forcing their way to take over their Capital?
US forces now on the ground supporting combat operations in Yemen, Pentagon says
http://www.stripes.com/news/middle-east/us-forces-now-on-the-ground-supporting-combat-operations-in-yemen-pentagon-says-1.408283
May 6, 2016 - U.S. troops have been on the ground in Yemen for approximately two weeks supporting Yemeni and Emirati forces that are fighting a pitched battle against al-Qaida militants near the city of Mukalla, Pentagon officials said Friday.
U.S. military activity in Yemen has been relegated mostly to airstrikes for more than a year following the overthrow of the government in the capital Sanaa by Houthi rebels, but Friday's announcement signals a new level of involvement in the conflict - one that the Pentagon described as temporary without putting a timeline on it.
The U.S. forces are working with Yemeni forces loyal to the old government, not the Houthis, officials said. The officials also said that the actions U.S. forces are engaged in are focused on al-Qaida and are separate from a Saudi-led campaign against the Houthis. The United States has assisted the Saudi-led coalition with midair refueling aircraft and some reconnaissance capabilities.
"We view this as short term," said Navy Capt. Jeff Davis, a Pentagon spokesman.
According to Davis, the United States is providing a "small number" of military personnel as well as medical teams, maritime support and intelligence-gathering assets including airborne surveillance aircraft to the Emirati and Yemeni forces fighting al-Qaida in the Arabian Peninsula or AQAP.
Davis would not describe what type of U.S. personnel were on the ground. U.S. Special Operations forces operated in Yemen in the years after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks but were forced to withdraw when civil war broke out in 2015. The U.S. troops, Davis said, would help advise the Arab ground forces and assist with operational planning.
Aside from the troops on the ground, Davis said ships from the 13th Marine Expeditionary Unit have staged off Yemen's coast. The flotilla of U.S. ships includes the USS Boxer, an amphibious assault ship with Marine infantry and aircraft, and two destroyers, the USS Gravely and the USS Gonzalez.
Davis said the United States has conducted four strikes against al-Qaida militants since April 23, killing 10 militants and wounding one. In March the Pentagon announced it had killed more than 70 al-Qaida fighters in Yemen in one of the largest U.S. strikes conducted in the country since the beginning of operations there. According to a Long War Journal database, the United States has conducted roughly 140 airstrikes in Yemen since 2002.
AQAP has exploited Yemen's civil war to expand its influence throughout the country, officials said, and has also managed to hold a number of key towns since the start of the conflict.
The influx of U.S. troops is intended to help Emirati and Yemeni forces wrest the port city of Mukalla and surrounding areas from AQAP. The group has held the city for the past year and in recent days has been mostly driven out and into the surrounding countryside.
Saudi military threatens to move forces into Sanaa if peace talks fail
http://www.stripes.com/news/middle-east/saudi-military-threatens-to-move-forces-into-sanaa-if-peace-talks-fail-1.409171
May 9, 2016 - Brig. Gen. Ahmed Asiri, a spokesman for the Saudi-led military coalition that has been fighting Houthi rebel forces since last year, said that Saudi Arabia hoped that peace talks in Kuwait, already strained by ongoing violence on the ground, would succeed.
"If not, . . . today we have troops around the capital, and we will get in, because the goal should be achieved, the goal which is securing Yemen," Asiri told reporters during a visit to Washington. "Securing Yemen doesn't mean that we will tolerate to have a militia . . . controlling ballistic missiles, artillery, etc., and threatening our border and threatening the area."
But Saudi Arabia would face a major challenge in trying to advance local troops or members of its mostly Arab military coalition into the Sanaa area, populated by supporters of the Houthi movement and former President Ali Abdullah Saleh.
Asiri's comments came several days after U.S. officials revealed that they had placed a small team of U.S. advisers on the ground around the Yemeni port city of Mukalla, where they are supporting operations in a parallel campaign by Emirati troops fighting alongside Saudi and Yemeni forces against al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP).
The action against AQAP has also drawn the United States deeper into the conflict. The small advisory operation marks the first U.S. military presence since the rebels' takeover of Sanaa in late 2014 prompted Washington to pull remaining American personnel from Yemen and end a long-standing training program for local forces.
Asiri said Saudi and Emirati Special Operations forces, about a company-size unit of each, joined troops loyal to the Yemeni government in fighting the militants in Mukalla. He declined to say how many Saudi troops had been on the ground but said most of them had been withdrawn after the fighting in Mukalla subsided. In addition to the foreign troops in Mukalla, on Yemen's southern coast, 300 Sudanese troops are in Aden, another important port city to the west.
Asiri said the Mukalla operation was just "one step" required against AQAP, which had retreated into remote areas where it is difficult to track, adding that Yemeni forces would need to reassert government control of those areas. "The objective is, once you free the zone, you put the army on the ground, the Yemeni army on the ground, and you start providing services," he said.
The expanded operations against AQAP take place as the United Nations struggles to bring about progress in the Kuwait peace talks. This week, Houthi leaders accused Saudi Arabia of violating a recently announced truce. Asiri, meanwhile, said that rebels had fired two Scud missiles at a Saudi city this week.
"We cannot leave Yemen in a gray area without having a final result," he said. "Otherwise, we will see the Libyan model in Yemen."
The general defended Saudi Arabia's management of its air campaign against the Houthi rebels, saying that strikes were conducted to the standard of NATO operations.
"We take all the measures to conduct surgical airstrikes," he said.
The United Nations has accused the Saudi-led coalition of being responsible for twice the number of civilian casualties as other combatants in Yemen. Asiri said that Saudi and allied forces systematically investigated allegations of civilian casualties but were hindered by a lack of access to Houthi-controlled areas. He did not provide a number for how many of those allegations had been verified.
The United Nations says the conflict has killed more than 6,000 people and triggered a severe humanitarian crisis in an already poor country.
