A weekend US drone strike, the second of the past week, killed four people in the Shabwa Province of Yemen, destroying a vehicle and apparently killing all within, who officials quickly labeled “al-Qaeda suspects.”
This is the first attack since Monday, when the US similarly destroyed a car in Maarib and similarly labeled all of the slain “al-Qaeda” only for one to turn out to be a 12-year-old student.
The US seems keen to show that they’re still launching attacks despite Yemen’s government resigning over a week ago, but killing civilians, and especially children, in the tribal areas risks a major backlash at a dangerous time.
While the US had the support of the Hadi government no matter how many civilians they killed, it is unclear who will be calling the shots in Yemen in the future, and if anti-US sentiment gets too strong, a new government may find they can’t afford to be a US proxy the way that previous regimes, who existed primarily as military dictatorships, could.