The United States will provide aerial refueling for a Saudi-led campaign in Yemen but is not passing on precise information for air raids, a senior military official said Thursday.
The US military's Central Command (CENTCOM) has been given the green light to deploy refueling tankers for the Saudis and their Gulf partners in the operation, though the refueling will take place outside of Yemen's airspace, the official told reporters.
"We have given CENTCOM the authority to do tanking," said the official, who spoke on condition of anonymity.
Officials had said previously Washington was considering offering refueling assistance as well as airborne early warning and control aircraft (AWACs).
The Saudis were expected to reimburse Washington for the refueling flights, which have not yet started, officials said.
President Barack Obama's administration had earlier promised intelligence and logistical support for the Saudi-led intervention in Yemen, where Iran-backed Huthi rebels have advanced deep into the southern city of Aden.
The United States was delivering intelligence from surveillance satellites and aircraft to help the Saudis monitor their border and to track the location of Huthi rebel forces as they push south, the official said.
The intelligence was helping create "a battlefield picture" of where the Huthis were deployed and to enable the Saudi-led aircraft to avoid causing civilian casualties, the official said.
"We're helping the Saudis understand what's happening on their border," the official said. "They're looking for evidence of any Huthi ground incursions."
The Huthis are "poised above Aden and we're trying to help the Saudis build a picture of that," the official said.
"But we're not providing them with targeting information."
Rights groups have voiced dismay at accounts of civilian casualties from the air raids. Dozens were killed in an air strike on a camp for displaced people and in a raid that struck a dairy.
But officials in Washington insist the United States is not relaying coordinates for particular strikes but only broader intelligence.
Although the Saudis had reinforced their border, they did not appear on the verge of a ground invasion of Yemen, the official said.
"I don't think they're going to do that. They're arraying their forces along their border to prevent a Huthi incursion," he said.
"They're postured defensively."
The official's comments came as Saudi Arabia announced its first casualties since starting the air offensive, with one soldier killed and 10 more wounded by gunfire from across the Yemeni border.
The Saudi-led coalition's campaign, dubbed Operation Decisive Storm, was launched a week ago against positions held by Shiite rebels and their allies across the country.
Source: AFP