US releases video from Yemen raid, but footage is dated

WASHINGTON — The U.S. military on Friday released a short clip from training videos seized in last weekend’s Yemen raid, but the images appear to be vintage al-Qaida footage that was first made public a decade ago.

U.S. Central Command said the clip, which is a bit longer than a minute, came from five longer videos found on a computer taken from the al-Qaida in the Arabian Peninsula compound that special operations forces raided. They said it is an example of the type of threat that AQAP fighters represent to the U.S. and other western nations.

Navy Capt. Jeff Davis, a Pentagon spokesman, said the age of the video doesn’t matter. The fact that it was at the compound illustrates the intentions of the enemy fighters there, he said.

There was “significant actionable intelligence” gathered at the compound, Davis explained, and the U.S. military is still going through it all. Much of it will be classified as secret and not releasable.

The raid ended in a firefight killing a Navy SEAL — Chief Special Warfare Operator William “Ryan” Owens, 36, of Peoria, Ill. — and 14 militants, including two operational planners and an AQAP weapons expert, Central Command said.

The presence of the AQAP leaders, it said, underscored early assessments that the compound was being used as a staging location, propaganda center and logistics hub for the group.

The military believes an undetermined number of civilians also were killed in the raid, including two children.

Air Force Col. John Thomas, Central Command spokesman, said that the military is reviewing the operation and it’s unclear how the civilians were killed or who may have fired at them.

The Pentagon has said that some of the deadly fire came from U.S. fighter jets and helicopters called in by special operations forces to help them in the firefight and allow them to get out.

In the al-Qaida video, a man wearing a white lab coat and a black hood with his glasses perched over it talks about explosives training.

The man says the training is “how to destroy the cross with explosives” — an apparent reference to fighting the West and the U.S.

After taking another look at the video, Thomas said U.S. officials agree that the footage appears to be older. Central Command removed the video from the Defense Department website.

Thomas said the footage was part of the large amount of data taken in the raid.

He said the team collected more intelligence and data “than we’ve gotten at any one time on AQAP up to now.” It included videos, computer and communications equipment and data.