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Yemen: Why Women Fought Against the Navy SEALs

In Yemen, starvation and a bloody civil war are leading some women to join Al-Qaeda.
Women walk past graffiti denouncing strikes by U.S. drones in Yemen, painted on a wall in the capital city of Sanaa, on February 6.
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Updated | The first counterterrorism operation authorized by President Donald Trump quickly went awry. In late January, Navy SEAL Team 6 and United Arab Emirates special forces attacked Al-Qaeda insurgents in Yemen, but the militants spotted the approaching Americans and an hourlong firefight ensued. One SEAL died and three others were injured, and Yemeni officials claim that between 13 and 16 civilians were killed—including at least eight women and children.

Those numbers are still being verified, but the dead reportedly included the 8-year-old daughter of Anwar al-Awlaki, the U.S.-born former top operative of Al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP). (Al-Awlaki, and later his teenage son, was killed by American drone

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