This is absolutely disgusting.
Fifteen people on their way to a wedding in Yemen were killed in an air strike after their party was mistaken for an al Qaeda convoy, local security officials said on Thursday.
The officials did not identify the plane in the strike in central al-Bayda province, but tribal and local media sources said that it was a drone.
“An air strike missed its target and hit a wedding car convoy, ten people were killed immediately and another five who were injured died after being admitted to the hospital,” one security official said.
As awful as President Bush’s wars in Afghanistan and Iraq were, President Obama’s expansion of the drone strike program to kill terrori pretty much anyone at this point isn’t much better.
Thanks for covering this.
Among all that’s wrong with these occupations, they are paving the way for the next wave of attacks on U.S. soil.
And as the MICC retains its near full funding, along with NSA to help win, “friends,” overseas and hold down dissent in the USA, veterans, the elderly, the jobless and the poor take the financial drone strike to the same literal effects of death, as food, shelter and health care remain unavailable or delayed, ever exasperating the problems or possible improvements to outcomes.
Thanks WI Republican delegation including your faithful members, Gwen Moore and Ron Kind and to POTUS Barry (who intends to sign this should it get through the Senate).
Our tax dollars keeping us safe. /s
Of course this is unacceptable and criminal if true in all of its details released by a Yemeni security official. I await confirmation by UN or neutral reporting sources especially as to the possibility of “al Qaeda militants…traveling with the wedding convoy.” as reported at:
http://worldnews.nbcnews.com/_news/2013/12/12/21879956-officials-us-drone-strike-kills-13-in-yemen-wedding-convoy
Good video from April of a young, courageous Yemeni man testifying before Congress: “As Obama Shuns Hearing, Yemeni Says U.S. Drone War Terrifying Civilians, Empowering Militants”
http://www.democracynow.org/2013/4/24/as_obama_shuns_hearing_yemeni_says
People in the Middle East use our military the same way Whitey Bulger used the FBI.
http://bostonherald.com/news_opinion/columnists/peter_gelzinis/2013/06/whitey_bulger_used_fbi_to_his_own_advantage
Wiping Anwar Al-Awlaki off the earth was a good thing, but killing innocent civilians “by mistake” is troubling. Anyone who has held a weapon that kills does not pull the trigger until 100 percent positive of the isolated target, the fact that our experts fail to identify a clear target shows how trigger-happy they are.
Anwar Al-Awlaki was a United States citizen.
If the government had admissible evidence of crimes (treason, sedition….) they should have charged him. He was denied his right to due process.
Damn straight. As far as I am concerned the targeted killing of an American citizen, regardless of what crimes he is SUSPECTED of committing, by order of our President or his administration warrants consideration as a “high crime or misdemeanor” by any standard. People being afraid doesn’t change the fact that terrorism is a criminal act and should be treated as such if we really are a nation of laws and ideals.
Our military/foreign policy is completely out of wack. In addition to drone strikes that kill 49 civiilians to every intended target, (website link) we are also training mujahideens in Jordan.
http://legendarykotetu.blogspot.com/2013/09/epic-fail-in-works-us-training-select.html
And let’s not forget what happens when we knock over a dictator – we drop the ball on his weapons. As many as 20,000 man-portable surface-to-air missiles are still missing from Libya, though apparently we found hundreds of manuals for them in an al qaeda training camp in Mali. http://legendarykotetu.blogspot.com/2013/06/wait-so-whats-this-blowback-thing-again.html
Politicians never learn.
Here is the latest report by CNN quoting two Yemeni officials that the convoy contained al Qaeda militants.
http://www.cnn.com/2013/12/12/world/meast/yemen-u-s-drone-wedding/
From my reading of early reports, I am unsure if U.S. or Yemeni security officials provided the intelligence. There is no doubt that the U.S. drone was authorized to fire based upon false or incomplete intelligence but from whom: U.S. or Yemeni?