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Father of fallen Navy Seal refused to meet Donald Trump

The father of William "Ryan" Owens, the Navy Seal who became the first combat fatality of Mr Trump's administration, has demanded that the president not use his son's death to "prevent an investigation".

The White House has said anyone that questions the success of a raid in Yemen in which Owens was killed is doing a "disservice" to his sacrifice. 

Bill Owens, the father, disagrees. 

“Don’t hide behind my son’s death to prevent an investigation,” he told the Miami Herald. “The government owes my son an investigation."

The raid was intended to be a quick intelligence gathering operation but devolved into a prolonged battle in which Owens and several civilians were killed.

Bill Owens told The Miami Herald that he refused to meet with President Donald Trump when both came to Dover Air Force Base to receive the casket carrying his son, Chief Special Warfare Officer William "Ryan" Owens.

White House spokeswoman Sarah Huckabee Sanders told ABC's "This Week" on Sunday she believes the president would support an investigation.

"I can't imagine what this father is going through," she said. "His son is a true American hero, and we should forever been in his son's debt."

The younger Mr Owens, a 36-year-old married father of three, was the lone US fatality in the 27 Jan raid on a suspected al-Qaeda compound. Approximately 16 civilians and 14 militants died in the raid, which the Pentagon said was aimed at capturing information on potential al-Qaeda attacks against the US and its allies.

The elder Mr Owens, a retired Fort Lauderdale police detective and veteran, told the Herald he refused to meet with the president because the family had requested a private ceremony.

"I'm sorry, I don't want to see him," Mr Owens recalled telling the chaplain who informed him that Mr Trump was on his way from Washington. "I told them I don't want to meet the president."

He said he was also troubled by the attack Mr Trump levelled at Khizr and Ghazala Kahn, an American Muslim family whose Army officer son died in Iraq in 2004. The couple had criticised him at the Democratic National Convention last summer. He also questioned why the president approved the raid a week after taking office.

"I told them I didn't want to make a scene about it, but my conscience wouldn't let me talk to him," Mr Owens told the Herald. "Why at this time did there have to be this stupid mission when it wasn't even barely a week into his administration? Why? For two years prior, there were no boots on the ground in Yemen - everything was missiles and drones - because there was not a target worth one American life. Now, all of a sudden we had to make this grand display?"

Ms Sanders defended the raid in her interview with "This Week" host George Stephanopoulos. The White House says the raid was planned during the Obama administration, but the former president's aides have said he hadn't given the go-ahead because it would have been an escalation of U.S. involvement in the war-torn and destitute Arab country.

"The mission has a lot of different critics, but it did yield a substantial amount of very important intel and resources that helped save American lives and other lives," Ms Sanders said.