Rising US drone strikes against al-Qaida in Yemen start to fuel anger over
civilian deaths
Published May 02, 2013
Associated Press
SANAA, Yemen - The cleric preached in his tiny Yemeni village about the
evils of al-Qaida, warning residents to stay away from the group's fighters
and their hard-line ideology. The talk worried residents, who feared it
would bring retaliation from the militants, and even the cleric's father
wanted him to stop.
But in the end it wasn't al-Qaida that killed Sheik Salem Ahmed bin Ali
Jaber.
Al-Qaida fighters, who hide in mountain strongholds near the remote eastern
village of Khashamir, did call him out, demanding he meet them one night -
apparently to intimidate him into stopping his sermons against them.
Sheik Salem felt he had no choice but to meet them, but a cousin who was in
the police insisted on accompanying him as protection, according to the
cleric's brother-in-law, Faysal bin Ali bin Jaber, who recounted the events
to The Associated Press.
"Once they arrived to the car where al-Qaida was, four missiles hit," Faysal
said. At home in the village, he heard the blasts - and heard the U.S. drone
that struck the cars. "We know the buzzing sound of the drones overhead," he
said.
Yemeni security officials confirmed three militants, along with Sheik Salem
and his cousin were killed in the strike last August and that it was carried
out by an American drone.
In its covert fight against al-Qaida in Yemen, the United States has
dramatically stepped up its use of drone strikes the past year, scoring key
successes against one of the most active branches of the terror network.
With more than 40 strikes reported in 2012 and nine so far this year, Yemen
has become the second biggest front in American drone warfare, after
Pakistan.
But the escalation has meant more civilians getting caught in the crossfire.
Civilian deaths are breeding resentments on a local level, sometimes
undermining U.S. efforts to turn the public against militants. The backlash
is still not as large as in Pakistan, where there is heavy pressure on the
government to force limits on strikes - but public calls for a halt to
strikes are starting to emerge.
Several dozen activists protested on Monday near the U.S. Embassy in Sanaa,
denouncing the strikes. "The drone program is terrorizing our people," the
activists wrote in an open letter to President Barack Obama. "One never
knows where the next drone will strike nor how many innocent victims will
die."
At a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing in Washington last week on the drone
program, Farea al-Muslimi, a Yemeni whose village had been struck only days
earlier, told the senators that drones are "harming efforts to win hearts
and minds," saying drones are now "the face of America" to many Yemenis.
"What violent militants had previously failed to achieve, one drone strike
achieved in an instant," he said.
Faysal bin Jaber said the strike had deepened the fear in Khashamir.
Sheik Salem had spoken in his sermon "about how killing people and labeling
people who work with the West as infidels is wrong," Faysal said.
But after the strike, "everyone who saw that there is no differentiating
between us and al-Qaida are asking why don't we just join al-Qaida since it
makes no difference?" he said. The cleric's widow - Faysal's sister - now
relies on relatives and neighbors for support for herself and her seven
children.
While the United States acknowledges its drone program in Yemen, it does not
confirm individual strikes or release information on how many have been
carried out. Three prominent groups have been compiling data on strikes,
mainly from news reports, including the AP's, based on reports by Yemeni
security officials: the London-based Bureau for Investigative Journalism and
the U.S.-based Long War Journal and the New America Foundation.
Their estimates on the number of U.S. airstrikes vary - from 44 to 67 since
2002, the majority of them by drones. Compiling accurate data has been even
more difficult because until recently, the Yemeni military took
responsibility for many strikes apparently carried out by the United States.
All three groups mark a dramatic escalation last year. The Long War Journal,
for example, recorded 42 strikes in 2012, up from 10 the year before. The
Associated Press has reported on nine strikes so far in 2013.
By comparison, the U.S. has carried out more than 330 airstrikes in Pakistan
since 2004, though there the rate has been falling - from a peak of 117
strikes in 2010 to 46 in 2012, according to the Long War Journal's count.
Determining civilian deaths is even more difficult. The Long War Journal
says it has confirmed 35 civilians and 193 militants killed by American
strikes in 2012, up from six civilians and 10 militants the year before.
This year, 31 militants and no civilians have been killed, according to its
count. AP has reported 33 militants killed this year, with no confirmed
civilian deaths.
C.I.A. director John Brennan says the strikes are only used as a last resort
against suspects believed to be plotting against America.
"In short, targeted strikes against the most senior and most dangerous AQAP
terrorists are not the problem, they are part of the solution," he said in
remarks at the Council on Foreign Relations in August, using the initials of
the group's full name, al-Qaida in the Arabian Peninsula.
The United States says al-Qaida's branch in Yemen is among the group's most
dangerous and active offshoots. It has been linked to several attempted
attacks on U.S. targets, including a botched Christmas Day 2009 bombing of
an airliner over Detroit and explosives-laden parcels intercepted aboard
cargo flights a year later.
The spike in strikes in 2012 came as the U.S. was backing a Yemeni military
campaign to uproot al-Qaida militants and their radical allies who had taken
over a string of southern cities and towns. The campaign, including heavy
ground fighting by Yemeni troops, largely drove the militants into the
mountains and countryside.
The drone strikes have taken out high-level targets in Yemen such as
American-born cleric Anwar al-Awlaki, believed to have been a powerful tool
for al-Qaida's recruiting in the West. Most, however, appear to target
midlevel operatives. Still on the loose is AQAP's leader, Nasser al-Wahishi.
Soon after al-Awlaki's death, his 16 year-old American son, Abdulrahman, and
a teenage cousin were killed in a suspected U.S. drone strike. Afterward,
Yemeni protesters rallied outside the U.S. Embassy, carrying the teenagers'
pictures and posters that said "U.S. tax payers kill U.S. citizens" and
"Where is justice?"
On Sunday, relatives of civilians killed in strikes gathered in Sanaa to
raise awareness on the deaths, in the first meeting of its kind, organized
by the London-based legal action group Reprieve.
Mohammed Ahmed Bijash told the gathering that his 10-year-old daughter was
killed in the southern city of Jaar when a missile hit her school during
fighting last year to drive out al-Qaida militants.
"What is the crime we committed for U.S. bombs to hit our homes?" he said at
the meeting. "They have turned our lives into hell."
Hussein Saeed Dahman's 16 year-old son was knocked unconscious from a drone
strike in December while playing soccer with friends in in the city of Shar
Hadramawt.
"The sky rained down U.S. missiles and then the kids found body parts in the
soccer field," the father told AP. His son, Hamza, remains bedridden and
unable to speak.
U.S. lawyer Cori Crider, who works with Reprieve, said tribal leaders she
has spoken to warn the strikes only strengthen support for al-Qaida.
"There is a definitely a branch of al-Qaida here. They are real," she told
AP. "The question is, What is the appropriate response to this?"
"You can't bomb you way out of an insurgency."
Read more:
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qaida-in-yemen-start-to-fuel-anger-over/#ixzz2SADFgQcl>
http://www.foxnews.com/world/2013/05/02/rising-us-drone-strikes-against-al-q
aida-in-yemen-start-to-fuel-anger-over/#ixzz2SADFgQcl
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