An attempt by the US military to defend Donald Trump's first covert military operation fell apart on Friday, when a video the Pentagon cited as "valuable intelligence" snatched during the raid transpired to be more than a decade old, and available on the internet.

As human rights groups and members of congress called for an inquiry into the Yemen raid that killed one American special forces commando and several civilians, including children, the department of defence released a statement intended to show the value that the operation had in protecting America against Islamic extremists.

They released excepts from videos that Col John Thomas, a US Central Command spokesman described as "one example of the volumes of sensitive Al-Qaeda terror-planning information recovered during the operation".

But experts monitoring jihadist behaviour online poured scorn on the claim, pointing out that the video, which includes tips for bomb making, was typical of what can already be found on the internet.