Gen. Votel: Pentagon Must Examine Whether US Arms in Yemen Sent to al-Qaeda
Saudi-led coalition includes a number of Islamist factions in Yemen
Jason Ditz
Speaking to Senators on Tuesday, Centcom Commander Gen. Joseph Votel said that the US needs to “look more closely” at reports that arms sent to Yemen to back the Saudi invasion ended up going to al-Qaeda and other Islamist factions.
The US gave the arms to the Saudi-led coalition for the protracted ground war in Yemen. They neglected to note that this Saudi coalition was a series of Sunni Arab states looking to oust a Shi’ite political movement in Yemen, and unsurprisingly had domestic allies that included very hardline Sunni groups, including al-Qaeda and other Salafist Islamists.
Exactly as happened in Syria, the US started arming the side they wanted to back, and it never occurred to them that the arms would be shared around to the various other allies within that coalition, including groups the US definitely wouldn’t be allowed to directly arm.
The US gave the arms to the Saudi-led coalition for the protracted ground war in Yemen. They neglected to note that this Saudi coalition was a series of Sunni Arab states looking to oust a Shi’ite political movement in Yemen, and unsurprisingly had domestic allies that included very hardline Sunni groups, including al-Qaeda and other Salafist Islamists.
Exactly as happened in Syria, the US started arming the side they wanted to back, and it never occurred to them that the arms would be shared around to the various other allies within that coalition, including groups the US definitely wouldn’t be allowed to directly arm.
https://news.antiwar.com/2019/02/05/gen-votel-pentagon-must-examine-whether-us-arms-in-yemen-sent-to-al-qaeda/
posted by Satish Sharma at
11:36
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