Suspected US drone strikes kill three al-Qaida
suspects in Yemen, officials say
·
First strikes under President Trump reported by Yemeni officials
·
Use of unmanned aircraft for strikes increased dramatically
under Obama
An MQ-1 Predator flies a
training mission over New Mexico. Photograph: Alamy
Associated Press in Sanaa
Sunday 22 January 2017 17.22 GMT
·
·
·
·
View more sharing options
Shares
2,049
Suspected US drone strikes have killed three
alleged al-Qaida operatives in Yemen’s south-western Bayda province, security
and tribal officials said, the first such killings reported in the country
since Donald Trump assumed the presidency on Friday.
US
airstrike kills more than 100 alleged al-Qaida militants in Syria, Pentagon
says
Read more
The two strikes on Saturday killed Abu Anis
al-Abi, an area field commander, and two others, the officials said, speaking
on condition of anonymity as they were not authorized to release the
information to journalists.
The use of unmanned aircraft as well as airstrikes in Yemen, the Arab world’s poorest
country, rose dramatically under President Obama, with data from the
Britain-based Bureau of Investigative Journalism showing spikes in attacks,
especially in 2012 and 2016.
On Thursday, US intelligence officials said as
many as 117 civilians had been killed in drone and other counter-terror attacks
in Pakistan, Yemen and
elsewhere during Obama’s presidency. It was the second public assessment issued
in response to mounting pressure for more information about lethal US
operations overseas.
Human rights and other groups have criticized
the Obama administration, saying it has undercounted civilian casualties. They
also worry President Trump will more aggressively conduct drone strikes, which
are subject to little oversight from Congress or the judiciary.
In the years since the drone program began,
Yemen has fallen ever deeper into chaos. A two-year civil war began after Shia
Houthi rebels seized the capital Sana’a and forced the president, Abed Rabbo
Mansour Hadi, to flee the country. In March 2015 a Saudi-led military coalition
launched an extensive air campaign aimed at restoring Hadi’s government.
Al-Qaida in the Arabian Peninsula, long seen by Washington as among the
most dangerous branches of the global terror network, exploited the chaos,
seizing territory in the country’s south and east. The Islamic State group has
also claimed attacks. The northern region remains under Houthi control.
'A
more dangerous long-term threat': Al-Qaida grows as Isis retreats
Read more
On Sunday, Mwatana, one of Yemen’s top human
rights groups, released a documentary on civilian victims of drone strikes,
interviewing family members who say their relatives were innocent and they had
received no compensation from the US despite their wrongful deaths.
It cited much higher civilian death tolls than
the US intelligence report, saying that hundreds of innocents had been killed
by the US strikes across the country since at least 2002.
In one segment from Bayda, the same province
where Saturday’s drone strikes hit, Ali Abedrabbo Ahmed said his 17-year-old
son was only a construction worker killed while he was going to work in a
pickup truck with colleagues in 2014, an incident other witnesses corroborated
in the video.
“Who do we talk to? America? Where is America?”
said Nasser Mohammed Nasser, a survivor from the targeted convoy.
“They would kill two or three from al-Qaida on
one hand and 10 or 15 civilians on the other hand. Where is this al-Qaida they
claim to be killing? … There are many other incidents like ours due to drones.”
No comments:
Post a Comment