SANAA, Yemen — The U.S. military said Sunday that one servicemember was killed and three others wounded in a raid in Yemen targeting its local al-Qaida branch, marking the first-known combat death of a member of the U.S. military under President Donald Trump. U.S. Central Command said in a statement Sunday that another service member was injured in a "hard landing" in a nearby location. It says the aircraft was unable to fly afterward and “was then intentionally destroyed in place.”

It says 14 fighters from al-Qaida in the Arabian Peninsula were killed in the assault and that U.S. service members captured “information that will likely provide insight into the planning of future terror plots.”

Yemeni security and tribal officials say the assault in central Bayda province killed three senior al-Qaida leaders. SANAA, Yemen — U.S. forces launched a raid in central Yemen on Jan. 29, security and tribal officials said, landing troops off of aircraft and killing three alleged senior al-Qaida leaders in a battle that was the third such U.S. ground engagement against the extremist group in Yemen. Yemeni security and tribal officials said the raid in Yemen's central Bayda province killed three senior al-Qaida leaders: Abdul-Raouf al-Dhahab, Sultan al-Dhahab, and Seif al-Nims. The al-Dhahab family, who are the late al-Awlaki's in-laws, is considered an ally of al-Qaida, which is now chiefly concentrated in Bayda province. A third family member, Tarek al-Dhahab, was killed in a previous U.S. drone strike years ago. "My deepest thoughts and humblest prayers are with the family of this fallen service member," he said. (Fawaz Salman/Reuters)

Planning for the clandestine counterterrorism raid began before Obama left office on Jan. 20, but Trump authorized the raid, according to a U.S. defence official, who was not authorized to discuss details beyond those announced by the Pentagon and so spoke on condition of anonymity. U.S. military officials contacted by The Associated Press had no immediate comment but said they were looking into the report. A suspected U.S. drone strike killed two men believed to be al-Qaeda militants in central Yemen, local officials said early on Monday, hours after American commandos carried out the first military operation authorized by President Donald Trump. The tribal officials said the Americans captured and departed with at least two unidentified individuals on Sunday, but the U.S. official in Washington said no detainees were taken in the raid,

Al-Qaida in the Arabian Peninsula, long seen by Washington as among the most dangerous branches of the global terror network, has exploited the chaos of Yemen's civil war, seizing territory in the south and east. The war began in 2014, when Shiite Houthi rebels and their allies swept down from the north and captured the capital, Sanaa. A Saudi-led military coalition has been helping government forces battle the rebels for nearly two years.
A suspected U.S. drone strike kills two al-Qaida militants in central Shabwa province, according to Yemeni security and tribal officials.