US military hits Islamic State in Yemen


The US military launched two airstrikes against the Islamic State in Yemen yesterday. An estimated 60 Islamic State fighters are thought to have been killed in three US strikes that have targeted the group over the past two weeks.

Nine Islamic State fighters were killed in yesterday’s attacks, which took place in Al Bayda province in central Yemen, The Military Times reported. A US Central Command (CENTCOM) official told the news agency that “approximately 60 ISIS terrorists” were killed in the three combined airstrikes.

Previously, CENTCOM reported that it killed “dozens” of Islamic State fighters in attacks that targeted two training camps that were based in Al Bayda province.

In the announcement on the operation that targeted the two camps, CENTCOM noted that the Islamic State “has used the ungoverned spaces of Yemen to plot, direct, instigate, resource and recruit for attacks against America and its allies around the world.”

“For years, Yemen has been a hub for terrorist recruiting, training and transit,” CENTCOM continued.

The US military has stepped up operations against both the Islamic State and al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP). Since the beginning of 2017, the US has launched more than 100 strikes against AQAP and three against the Islamic State.

The US government has begun to identify key members of the Islamic State’s network in Yemen. On Oct. 25, the US Department of Treasury noted that Abu Sulayman al-Adani serves as the emir of the Islamic State in Yemen. Nashwan al-Wali al-Yafi’i serves as the group’s top financial official, while Khalid al-Marfadi, Radwan Muhammad Husayn Ali Qanan and Khalid Sa’id Ghabish al-Ubaydi serve as key military leaders.

Bill Roggio is a Senior Fellow at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies and the Editor of FDD's Long War Journal.

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2 Comments

  • Truthful James says:

    I get easily confused, Here is what is clear, The Islamic State under whatever abbreviation is a Sunni group established and funded by Turkey, The alQaeda on the Arabian peninsula if as indicated a Sunni organization with many local independent entities organized and funded by Saudi Arabia as the secular branches set up when Riyadh went around Africa (and Asia) building mosques. Turkey’s underlying strategic objective has been to establish a single Caliphate to control the radical Sunni movement and in turn regain its Ottoman like influence. Riyadh’s weakness is that they refer to its control of the Holy Cities as being a caliphate,.

    The Houthi in Yemen are belong to the Shi’a branch of Islam. Sunni radicals read the Quran as calling for the massacre of all Shi’a who are considered by the Sunni as apostates. Iran and Iraq are the only Shi’a majority states. It would appear that Iran, a radical Shi’a dictatorship, is attempting to establish a new Persia extending from Afghanistan through northern Iraq and Syria to the Med.

    Iraq is ethnically divided into three components. In the south, and controlling the access to the Persian Gulf and with oil resources are the Shi’a Arabs, a majority in population. Across the middle of the country are the Sunni Arab sheikdoms without significan oil and gas resources. When Saddam Hussein was in charge he attemppted to have the Sunni move to the north in the Kirkuk area extending towards Mosul. These Sunni were the bulk of the Iraqi Army. When America ‘won’ the war in Iraq, the Sunni military realized that the Shi’a Arabs would head north and pay the Sunni back. These folk went north to the Turkish (Sunni) border and formed with the aid of the Turks what I call the ISIS home team.

    The Sunni Kurds populated the noerthern third of Iraq. Their peoples extended east into northern Iran. Pockets of Kurds lived along the Turkish border in Syria. A much larger number of Kurds lived in southeast Turkey and were looking along with all Kurds for a homeland. They had been lrct out by the Sykes-Picot agreement which divvied up the Ottoman Empire into British and French protectorates and over time the new nation of Israel.. That is the general narrative as I understand it.

    In Yemen,the Houthi are being supported by Iran. So what is the Islamic State doing there. Sunni supporting Shi’a?

  • Telh says:

    Keep up the good work

Iraq

Islamic state

Syria

Aqap

Al shabaab

Boko Haram

Isis