US service member killed, three wounded in Yemen commando raid targeting al-Qaeda

The US military said Sunday that one service member was killed and three others wounded in a raid in Yemen targeting its local al-Qaeda branch, marking the first-known combat death of a member of the US military under President Donald Trump’s new administration.

US Central Command said in a statement that a fourth service member was injured in a “hard landing” in a nearby location. The aircraft was unable to fly afterward and was “intentionally destroyed.”

The Central Command statement said 14 militants from al-Qaeda’s branch in Yemen, formally known as “al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula,” were killed in the assault and that US service members taking part in the raid captured “information that will likely provide insight into the planning of future terror plots.”

Yemeni security and tribal officials said the surprise dawn assault in Yemen’s central Bayda province killed three senior al-Qaeda leaders: Abdul-Raouf al-Dhahab, Sultan al-Dhahab, and Seif al-Nims.

The al-Dhahab family is considered an ally of al-Qaeda, which is now chiefly concentrated in Bayda province. A third family member, Tarek al-Dhahab, was killed in a US drone strike several years ago. It was not immediately clear whether the family members were actual members of al-Qaeda.

The US troops killed or wounded some two dozen men, including some Saudis present at the site, according to the Yemeni officials. They spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorised to brief journalists.