7.7.11

RFA Cardigan Bay, Ft. Victoria:,Argus off Yemen


Britain has sent 80 commandos aboard one of the Royal Navy's support ships, the 31,000-ton RFA Fort Victoria, to sit off Yemen.

It will soon be joined by another RFA vessel, the 16,000-ton landing ship Cardigan Bay, which will be situated off the coast of Yemen.

The RFA's Argus and Fort Victoria were diverted through the Suez Canal a fortnight ago to stand off Yemen.
"As part of routine deployment UK military assets are in the region, although we are not prepared to comment further on their exact operational tasking," a Ministry of Defence (MoD) spokesman said.

Contingents of America’s “white” Special Operations Forces—the groups at Fort Bragg in North Carolina and the Rangers at Fort Benning in Georgia—are training Yemen’s own special forces.

Meanwhile, teams of “black” special forces—Delta Force, SEAL Team Six, and their helicopter-flying colleagues—are operating in the country in tandem with those trained Yemenis.

Operatives from the CIA’s paramilitary Special Activities Division are in-country running agents. The Pentagon's Joint Special Operations Command (JSOC), which runs the “black” special forces, is flying overhead an armada of drones, many of designs (and sizes) that are still classified.

The CIA, already flying a covert air force of Predator and Reaper drones over Pakistan, has now acquired enough that it’s begun patrols over Yemen to provide more consistent surveillance and heavier firepower than most of JSOC’s fleet can supply.

Meanwhile, a mini-carrier—currently the Marines’ amphibious assault vessel USS Boxer—is on permanent station in the Gulf of Aden off Yemen’s coast with a squadron of Harrier aircraft to fly strike-missions against targets in-country identified either by the CIA, special forces on the ground or the drones.

When the target warrants, the submarine escorting the amphib is called into action, to launch one of its battery of land-attack cruise missiles. In the command center of this covert campaign, video feeds from a drone over the target have allowed commanders to witness real-time the cruise missiles’ impact. Los Angeles fast attack submarine USS La Jolla (SSN-701)? here

Warsame was captured at sea and the Navy put him in the brig of the USS Boxer for two months. Stars and Stripes
After his capture, he was taken to the Boxer, an amphibious assault ship that was steaming in the region and has a brig, a senior military official said.
A spokesman for the White House’s National Security Council, said the two-month interrogation of Mr. Warsame for intelligence purposes had been “comprehensive” and “handled to the full satisfaction” of interrogators and intelligence agencies — only after which, he said, “did top national security officials unanimously decide to transition to a law-enforcement interrogation, which did not end the flow of intelligence from Warsame.” NYT
Boxer
Warsame

No comments: