Several Yemeni human rights groups have publicly condemned the US drone strikes against their nation today, calling on the Hadi government to repudiate the attacks and urging the US to stop killing civilians.
Seyaj Organization for Childhood Protection reported four childrenkilled inRada’aby a drone strike, and a number of other civilians wounded. They urged officials to ensure that the civilian victims of the attack received treatment.
All told,29 people havebeen killed in the last 8 days in US drone attacks, with at least 11 of them now confirmed to be civilians. Several others, identified only as suspects, were tribesmen and will likely never be identified.
Also among the victims was Salem bin Ali Jaber, a moderate Sunni cleric with no ties to any militant group. He died in one of the August 29 strikes, according to the Association of Southern Provinces Clerics.
As a result, the number of estimated deaths from the Obama administration’s drone strikes is more than four times what it was during the Bush administration — somewhere between 1,494 and 2,618.
Under Obama, the drone campaign, which during the Bush administration had put emphasis on killing significant members of al Qaeda, has undergone a quiet and unheralded shift to focus increasingly on killing Taliban foot soldiers
He goes on to say:
To the extent that the targets of drone attacks can be ascertained, under Bush, al Qaeda members accounted for 25% of all drone targets compared to 40% for Taliban targets. Under Obama, only 8% of targets were al Qaeda compared to just over 50% for Taliban targets.
And while under Bush, about a third of all drone strikes killed a militant leader, compared to less than 13% since President Obama took office, according to an analysis of thousands of credible media reports about the strikes undertaken by the New America Foundation.
While Bush sought to decapitate the leadership ranks of al Qaeda, Obama seems to be aiming also to collapse the entire network of allied groups, such as the Pakistani Taliban.
It’s been reported that Muslims have become more nationalistic due to us killing more civilians in [seemingly] random drone strikes. That’s just bad foreign policy.
—Shared by Elle.
