US Defense Secretary James Mattis today said the Pentagon is boosting efforts to cut down on civilian harm in Yemen, even as refueling of Saudi and Emirati jets in the war-torn country continues despite opposition from Congress.
Speaking to reporters at the Defense Department on the heels of a meeting with Saudi Arabia’s Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman last week, Mattis said a contingent of US advisers deployed to help with intelligence sharing are engaged in a “dynamic” role to help ensure a reduction in civilian harm.
“When we’re doing the planning, we have shown them how you have what we call no-strike zone,” Mattis said, explaining that US forces are helping Saudi and Emirati pilots differentiate between military targets and populated areas such as towns, schools and hospitals. “It’s not as easy as saying there’s a school or hospital, now draw a circle around it on a map. Now it’s got to go up into the airplane, now the people who are calling for strikes have to be aware sometimes you add to them — you found a new place that you didn’t have on the map before.”
“This is the trigonometry level of warfare,” said Mattis. Though the former Marine general and commander of US forces in the Middle East outlined that American air-to-air refueling was aimed at “reducing the risk of civilian casualties” in a letter to Senate Majority leader Mitch McConnell earlier this month, the Pentagon had yet to publicly outline specific procedures to cut down on collateral damage.
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