WASHINGTON, Oct. 16, 2017 — Defense Department officials announced that U.S. forces killed dozens of ISIS members in a strike on two Islamic State of Iraq and Syria training camps today in Yemen’s al Bayda governorate, disrupting the organization's attempts to train new fighters.
At the camps, ISIS militants conducted endurance training and trained to conduct terror attacks with AK-47s, machine guns and rocket-propelled grenade launchers, DoD officials said.
ISIS has used the ungoverned spaces of Yemen to plot, direct, instigate, supply and recruit for attacks against America and its allies around the world, officials said. For years, Yemen has been a hub for terrorist recruiting, training and transit, they added.
In coordination with the government of Yemen, U.S. forces are supporting ongoing counterterrorism operations in Yemen against ISIS and al-Qaida in the Arabian Peninsula to degrade the groups' ability to coordinate external terror attacks and limit their ability to hold territory seized from the legitimate government of Yemen, DoD officials said.
Strikes against ISIS targets disrupt and destroy militants' attack-plotting efforts, leadership networks and freedom of maneuver within the region, the officials said.
