President Donald Trump has lashed out at Republican Senator John McCain, accusing the veteran of emboldening the enemy for disputing the administration's insistence that the deadly US military mission in Yemen was a success.
Trump took to Twitter to assail the chairman of the Armed Services Committee after the Arizona lawmaker initially called last month's raid a "failure." McCain softened his stand in a statement on Tuesday in which he said that while many objectives of the raid were met, "I would not describe any operation that results in the loss of American life as a success."
"Sen. McCain should not be talking about the success or failure of a mission to the media," Trump said over several tweets. "Only emboldens the enemy! He's been losing so ... long he doesn't know how to win anymore."
The raid was supposed to be an intelligence gathering mission but turned into a lengthy battle with al-Qaida fighters in which a Navy SEAL, Ryan Owens, was killed, a $US75 million aircraft was lost and there were multiple casualties, including women and children.
White House spokesman Sean Spicer has called the raid "absolutely a success."
