Everyone who gets killed in a drone strike by the US government in Yemen is officially labeled a “suspect.” That’s just the way Yemeni security forces do things But 12 distinct attacks in the last two weeks have killed 49, including a lot of apparent bystanders.
Indeed, of all the US strikes the administration was only willing to say that “at least 14” of the slain were al-Qaeda militants. That leaves 35 others who the locals say are just random civilians killed in strikes that are hitting civilian areas.
The backlash is growing in intensity as the strikes do, following a similar trend to the anti-US sentiment the strikes fueled across Pakistan, which eventually dominated this year’s election.
One civilian in the town of Jaar, just north of Zinjibar, reported taking his daughter from school to a nearby clinic for a doctor’s appointment. Hellfire missiles destroyed the clinic. He and his children fled back to the school to hide in the basement. The school, was then hit in a followup attack, destroying it and killing his daughter.
Such stories have been a constant feature of drone wars since they began, and where in previous conflicts the US would’ve tried to shrug off the killings as “collateral damage” these days they use an even more convenient term, “suspect.”
If these figures prove correct seventy one per cent of victims in Yemen in the last two weeks were civilian non combatants. Further close examination would likely reveal a much higher percentage. A study on drone strikes in Pakistan by the London Bureau of Investigative Journalism in 2009 found that 95% of drone victims were civilians. That's because intelligence in these remote tribal areas is next to zero. Obama uses drones because he and his team are totally frustrated and failing to make any concrete progress in these failed adventures in Afghanistan, Pakistan, Syria, Yemen, Somalia, Libya and now Egypt.
Down with drones! Bring Manning home!
The imperial relationship is so sick. Washington using its unequal power to do things to people who can't do anything back, except maybe try to kill themselves in shocking ways to say Stop It and Get the Hell Out of Our Countries.
Then the imperial power uses its influence to proclaim that the weak do not have the right to fight back. Their choices are submit or die.
So now the US is targetting 'militants' rather than 'terrorists'. It is sliding down that slippery slope.
I was watching the BBC clip you linked in the article and I had to stop it right at the part where a gentlemen was talking about his sister who was excited to wear her new dress, but that she got blasted by a drone strike on her way to the market. It's so horrible what these people have to suffer because of the State. It's truly satanic. I have to stop watching these videos at work lol
The real terrorists are in Washington, in the CIA and the Pentagon. And the top-terrorist is Godfather Obama, of course. How many kids have you killed by drones today, Godfather Obama ?
If you kill enough innocent people overseas, you can generate a whole new generation of enemies, and that is exactly the goal, and it is working fantastically well!