The ground covert ground missions have the specific goal of secretly collecting intelligence on the al Qaeda affiliate there, including their top operatives and locations where they may be hiding.
“We have people on the ground, as you know, and as we’ve stated before, we have not had any ground combat operations since January 28,” said Pentagon spokesman Capt. Jeff Davis, which was the date of the Navy SEAL raid. But two other officials with direct knowledge of the latest intelligence say ground operations recently have taken place, even if it did not result in combat. They say ground missions are happening regularly.
The highly dangerous ground operations are deemed worth the risk by the Pentagon because recent intelligence has shown al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula headquartered in Yemen is actively plotting.
US airstrikes have decimated some of the groups ability to carry out actual attacks officials say, but the intelligence shows they still very much plan to try. Several US officials say the recent ban on electronics in passenger cabins on some flights was due in part to intelligence emanating from AQAP.
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These ground operations go beyond previously acknowledged US airstrikes. The only ground missions acknowledged recently was the January Navy SEAL raid. It was made public because the Pentagon had to acknowledge a service member was killed — also a beginning of the acknowledgment how deeply troops are involved there.
In addition to ground operations, the US has launched approximately 20 airstrikes against al Qaeda in Yemen since March 30, Davis told reporters Monday at the Pentagon. Davis said the strikes targeted AQAP militants and infrastructure.
A US defense official told CNN that two of the strikes were conducted in the last 24 hours in Shabwah Governorate.
That SEAL raid in January provided critical intelligence about how the al Qaeda organization operates officials say. It has specifically given the US information it can build upon to develop additional intelligence and targeting of the AQAP network officials say.
On the latest missions CNN has been asked to withhold details of some of the tactics and highly advanced surveillance technology special operations teams use because it could risk terrorists finding out US capabilities.
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Source
