The father of a US Navy Seal killed in a raid on a suspected al-Qaeda compound in Yemen last month has said that he refused to meet US President Donald Trump when his son’s body arrived home.<\/p>\n
“I’m sorry, I don’t want to see him,” he said he told a chaplain at the time.<\/p>\n
The raid on 28 January was the first such operation authorised by Mr Trump.<\/p>\n
Bill Owens, whose son William “Ryan” Owens was killed, told the Miami Heraldthat “the government owes my son an investigation”.<\/p>\n
“Why at this time did there have to be this stupid mission when it wasn’t even barely a week into his administration? Why?” he said in an interview with the newspaper published on Sunday.<\/p>\n
“For two years prior, there were no boots on the ground in Yemen – everything was missiles and drones – because there was not a target worth one American life. Now, all of a sudden we had to make this grand display?”<\/p>\n
US raid on al-Qaeda in Yemen: What we know<\/strong><\/p>\n The raid – approved by President Trump just six days after he took office – is believed to have killed several civilians, including children.<\/p>\n Three other Americans were wounded in the raid, planning for which began under the Obama administration.<\/p>\n A report in the New York Times alleged that the mission had been compromised early on – something the commandos knew from intercepted communications, the paper said.<\/p>\n “They kind of knew they were screwed from the beginning,” it quoted a former Seal Team 6 official as saying.<\/p>\n But the military disputed this, saying there was no evidence the mission was compromised.<\/p>\n White House spokeswoman Sarah Huckabee Sanders said on Sunday that she believed President Trump would support an investigation.<\/p>\n “The mission has a lot of different critics, but it did yield a substantial amount of very important intel and resources that helped save American lives and other lives,” she said.<\/p>\n Mr Owens said he was told that his son was killed early on in a fierce gunfight that erupted with AQAP militants.<\/p>\n A flag-draped casket bearing his body was flown to Dover Air Base on 1 February for a private ceremony. Mr Owens said he only learned that President Trump and his daughter Ivanka were on their way when he was already there.<\/p>\n “I told them I didn’t want to make a scene about it, but my conscience wouldn’t let me talk to him,” he said.<\/p>\n A military veteran, he told the Miami Herald that Mr Trump’s comments during the presidential campaign about the family of a dead Muslim US soldier had disturbed him.<\/p>\n He said that the White House should not “hide behind” his son’s death to ignore criticism of the raid.<\/p>\n William “Ryan” Owens, a 36-year-old married father of three, was a member of the elite Seal Team 6.<\/p>\n –<\/p>\n Source: BBC<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" The father of a US Navy Seal killed in a raid on a suspected al-Qaeda compound in Yemen last month has said that he refused to meet US President Donald Trump when his son’s body arrived home. “I’m sorry, I don’t want to see him,” he said he told a chaplain at the time. The […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":14,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[107],"tags":[],"yoast_head":"\n