Officials: Yemen has withdrawn permission for U.S. anti-terrorism ground missions

(Image credit: Andrew Harrer - Pool/Getty Images)

published 8 February 2017

U.S. officials say that the Yemeni government, upset over the deaths of several civilians in a raid authorized last month by President Trump, has suspended anti-terrorism commando operations by the United States inside the country, The New York Times reports.

This does not affect military drone attacks or the advisers there working with Yemeni forces, the officials said; the White House and the Yemeni government have not publicly announced the suspension. The raid left one Navy SEAL, more than a dozen al Qaeda fighters, and several civilians dead, including children. The White House has called it a "success" multiple times, and the Pentagon says it has recovered laptops and other items that will shed light on how al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula operates; others have called it a disaster, marred by the death of the SEAL and the hard landing of a helicopter that had to be destroyed. Military officials told NBC News the raid actually targeted the leader of al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula, Qassim al-Rimi, but he was either not at the house or escaped, and has gone on to record a message taunting Trump.