Yemeni Deputy Governor: 130 Killed by US Drones This Month
More Than 15 Drone Strikes Confirmed
Officials with Yemen’s Defense Ministry have confirmed that the US has been launching drone strikes on a daily basis against the nation in June, with more than 15 confirmed strikes already this month. The deputy governor of Abyan Province reports at least 130 killed in those attacks.
So far it is unclear who was killed in the strikes, but the deputy government said a number of innocent civilians were among the dead. Abyan Province has seen fighting over several towns between government forces and militant fighters, and it seems the US is using this fighting as cover for the drone campaign.
The announcement comes in the wake of several reports that the Obama Administration is looking to dramatically escalate its drone presence in the country, launching attacks against targets in the nation’s tribal dominated regions. It appears, however, that those strikes had already begun.
And may get worse yet. The Associated Press has a report that the US is building a secret CIA air base from which to launch drone attacks across the region. The site of the base was unclear, but reports that officials are concerned that the Yemeni regime may full suggest it may be outside of Yemen.
The US has a history of launching strikes against Yemeni targets, with President Saleh shrugging off such attacks and even helping the US cover up past civilian casualties. Those attacks were major, but extremely intermittent. Now that the attacks are a daily part of life in Yemen, the concerns about the unereliablility of US targeting is bound to again become an issue.
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hafed
June 15th, 2011 at 3:24 am
What is taking place in Yemen, is an absolute imperial hubris conducted against a simple country fighting to return to normalcy after 33 years of tyrant rule.What Yemen needs now that Saleh is out of the scene,is economical and political assistnce, not more killings especally when innocent civilians are getting killed just for being in wrong place.
curmudgeonvt
June 15th, 2011 at 5:55 am
They are encircling Iran. When the bases are built, then the real preparations for the invasion will begin. Will the failure of the US economy stop them? Or will they deem destroying Iran as more important than saving/restoring the US economy – I mean the elite, the top 1% (who control most everything including the government) have most of the money now, safely tucked away from places that will fail when the financial shit hits the fan and the majority of the peons, like me, lose everything they've saved or invested. They been building these humongous bases in Iraq since 2003 – should be nearly completed by now. A friend's son recently returned from Iraq – works in the Intelligence/security field – and reported that we (the civilian pop) wouldn't believe how big these bases are and how much "stuff" they've stockpiled so far (as of 2010) – all kinds of nasty stuff.
thedissenter
June 15th, 2011 at 4:30 pm
130? That's more than Saleh. Time to impose a no-fly zone over the US to avoid a humanitarian catastrophe on the rest of rest of the world.
thedissenter
June 15th, 2011 at 4:32 pm
They're not interested in saving/restoring the US economy. They're only interesting in pillaging every last cent left in it. The thought of not invading other countries to spare America, Americans and the economy will never enter their dollar-sign shaped skull.