US cuts military advisers to Saudi coalition

Riyadh : The US military has slashed the number of intelligence advisers directly supporting the Saudi-led coalition’s air war in Yemen, the US Navy said yesterday, following concerns over civilian casualties.

The reassignment of personnel, around June, came because “there was not the same sort of requests coming in for assistance” from the Saudis, Fifth Fleet spokesman Lieutenant Ian McConnaughey told AFP from its base in Bahrain.

McConnaughey said the US reassignment of personnel does not affect their ability to support the Saudis and is a more efficient allocation of resources.

“That’s the main reason behind it, and it’s based on the amount of requests that we receive from the Saudis.”

He said the United States now has “a limited number, less than five, that are working directly on the advisory cell that we have here” in Bahrain.

That number is down from about 45, in Bahrain and Saudi Arabia, at its peak.

“If the need arises,” the team directly assigned to coalition cooperation could be augmented, the spokesman said.

The joint cell was established around the start of coalition operations in March last year, McConnaughey said.

The Arab coalition began air raids and later sent in ground forces to support the internationally recognised government of President Abedrabbo Mansour Hadi after Shiite Huthi rebels and their allies overran much of Yemen.

No ‘blank check’

The coalition has told AFP that it uses highly accurate laser and GPS-guided weapons  and that it verifies targets many times in order to avoid civilian casualties.

A US Defence Department spokesman yesterday said that Washington’s support to the coalition was not a “blank check”.

“The cooperation that we’ve extended to Saudi Arabia since the conflict escalated again is modest and it is not a blank check,” Adam Stump said.

“At no point did US military personnel provide direct or implicit approval of target selection.”

But Stump said US was “concerned by threat to Saudi territory along its southern border with Yemen.”