Qualla: Raid on Yakla

Raid on Yakla: Introduction

Tue, 24 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Carport, CC BY-SA 3.0. Nine days into his presidency, Donald Trump authorized a ground raid in central Yemen that had been planned under Barack Obama but never approved. What happened on January 29, 2017, in the village of al-Ghayil, in the Yakla area of Al Bayda Governorate, would become one of the most scrutinized military operations of the new administration -- not for what it achieved, but for what it cost. A Navy SEAL was killed. As many as twenty-five civilians died, including nine children, the youngest a three-month-old baby. A $75 million MV-22 Osprey was destroyed. And the principal target of the raid, al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula leader Qasim al-Raymi, was never found.

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Image: Carport | CC BY-SA 3.0

Raid on Yakla: Dinner Table Authorization

Tue, 24 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Brandon Maldonado (official US Marines photo), Public domain. Under Presidents Bush and Obama, military raids of this magnitude went through a rigorous approval process: a Situation Room meeting with a detailed operational plan, risk assessment, and legal review, with representatives from the State Department present. The Yakla raid followe...

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Image: Brandon Maldonado (official US Marines photo) | Public domain

Raid on Yakla: Contact in the Dark

Tue, 24 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Brandon Maldonado (official US Marines photo), Public domain. On January 26, a team of DEVGRU operators -- the unit commonly known as SEAL Team Six -- staged from Djibouti aboard the USS Makin Island. Their primary targets were members of the al-Dhahab family, an influential tribal clan in Al Bayda whose members had ties to AQAP. But the de...

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Image: Brandon Maldonado (official US Marines photo) | Public domain

Raid on Yakla: The Children of al-Ghayil

Tue, 24 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Brandon Maldonado (official US Marines photo), Public domain. The human cost of the raid extended far beyond the combatants. The Bureau of Investigative Journalism found that twenty-five civilians who were not AQAP members were killed, including nine children under the age of thirteen. A pregnant woman was among the dead. Human Rights Watch...

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Image: Brandon Maldonado (official US Marines photo) | Public domain

Raid on Yakla: A Father's Reckoning

Tue, 24 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Shealeah Craighead, Public domain. Chief Petty Officer William "Ryan" Owens of DEVGRU was killed during the firefight, becoming the first American service member to die in combat under the Trump presidency. Three other SEAL operators were wounded. The White House called the raid "highly successful." Press Secretar...

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Image: Shealeah Craighead | Public domain

Raid on Yakla: What the Raid Left Behind

Tue, 24 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Brandon Maldonado (official US Marines photo), Public domain. The Yakla raid became the subject of three pending Department of Defense investigations. U.S. officials later revealed that special operations forces had captured approximately one terabyte of data on AQAP, and the military worked to locate and monitor hundreds of al-Qaeda contac...

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Image: Brandon Maldonado (official US Marines photo) | Public domain