The United States has taken a step toward greater involvement in the Yemen war by agreeing to perform aerial refueling of Saudi and allied bombers, though the Pentagon said Monday its tankers won’t provide the help directly over the embattled Middle East country.
The U.S. military has been providing intelligence and logistics support since the March 26 start of the Saudi-led air campaign against Houthi rebels, who the United States and Saudi Arabia say are backed by Iran.
“Aerial refueling has been approved but has not yet been conducted,” Army Col. Steve Warren, a Pentagon spokesman, told reporters there. “It’s been authorized, assets are in place. The Saudis have not requested it. Any refueling will not take place over Yemen. Any refueling will take place over Saudi Arabia or other places.”
Warren disclosed that several days after predominately Sunni Muslim Saudi Arabia and Arab allies in the six-nation Gulf Cooperation Council began bombing Shia Houthi strongholds in Yemen, U.S. military forces came to the aid of a Saudi F-15 tactical fighter plane that “had mechanical difficulties.” He declined to say where the F-15 encountered problems, beyond noting that it was not “in the (Persian) Gulf.”
Warren said “a handful of (U.S.) personnel” are working in “a joint sort of fusion center” run by the Gulf Cooperation Council, which is led by Saudi Arabia and also includes the United Arab Emirates, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar and Bahrain.
“We’re not providing targeting intelligence (for airstrikes), but we’re providing more broadly situational intelligence,” Warren said.