Check out our official website: http://us.tomonews.net/
Check out our Android app: http://goo.gl/PtT6VD
Check out our iOS app: http://bit.ly/1gO3z1f
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
The New York Times has released new details in the shooting of two Al Qaeda linked kidnappers by Americans on April 24th in the Yemeni capital of Sanaa. The Times quotes an email from State Department spokeswoman Marie Harf in which she confirms that two U.S. Embassy officers fired their weapons and killed two Yemenis who were attempting to kidnap them.
The Americans were allowed to leave Yemen days later and their identities have been withheld, but an unnamed American official told The Times that one of the Americans was a lieutenant colonel with the Joint Special Operations Command and the other was a C.I.A. officer.
Witnesses told the New York Times that kidnappers armed with an AK-47 and a stun-gun arrived in a pickup truck outside the Taj barber shop on April 24th. Their goal was to kidnap the two Americans who were having their hair cut at the time. Witnesses reported hearing shots, and seeing the Yemeni kidnappers fatally wounded.
One American kicked an AK-47 rifle away from the dying kidnapper's hand, then they checked the street before exiting the barber shop. The Americans left in a black SUV and were allowed to exit the country days later.
The kidnappers were part of an Al Qaeda linked group which has kidnapped several Europeans over the last year. After the shooting in the barber shop, Yemeni authorities were able to track down the group's leader, Wael Abdullah al-Waeli, in Sanaa. Mr. Waeli was then killed in a shootout with authorities.
The United States has sent advisors to Yemen to help train security forces in counter terrorism. The United States also carries out frequent drone strikes against Al Qaeda targets in Yemen with the Yemeni government's consent, but opponents of the drone program s