American drone kills 15 wedding guests in Yemen

In 2011 an American drone killed 17-year old Abdel-Rahman al-Awlaki in Yemen together with his teenage cousin and six others. Abdel-Rahman had left his home in order to look for his father, preacher Anwar al-Awlaki, who was suspected of having links to al-Qaida and shortl;y before also had been killed by an American drone. 

Fifteen people on their way to a wedding in Yemen were killed in an air strike after their party was mistaken for an al-Qaida 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, 10 people were killed immediately and another five who were injured died after being admitted to the hospital," one security official said.
Five more people were injured, the officials said.
The United States has stepped up drone strikes as part of a campaign against al-Qaida in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP), regarded by Washington as the most active wing of the militant network.
Human Rights Watch said in a report in October that US missile strikes, including armed drone attacks, have killed dozens of civilians in Yemen.

Amnesty and HRW: US drone attacks are unlawful and kill many innocent civilians

The remnants of a US drone strike on August 29, 2012 in Khashamir, Yemen. The strike killed three alleged members of Al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula, a policeman, and a cleric who preached against the armed group.(Reuters)

The two human rights organizations Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch both have issued reports about America's war with drones at tha same day. The reports were on Tuesday at a joint press conference. Amnesty International reviewed all 45 known drone strikes that took place in North Waziristan in northwestern Pakistan between January 2012 and August 2013. The region that has seen more strikes than any other part of the country. Human Right Watch's  report is about the American strikes in Yemen. Both reports concluded, not unexpectedly, that the strikes, apart from alleged activists or terrorists,  killed many innocent civilians.
Amnesty did detailed field research into nine strikes and documented killings, which raise serious questions about violations of international law. In October 2012, 68-year-old grandmother Mamana Bibi was killed in a double strike, apparently by a Hellfire missile, as she picked vegetables in the family’s fields while surrounded by a handful of her grandchildren. In July 2012, 18 laborers, including a 14-year-old boy, were killed in multiple strikes on a impoverished village close to the border with Afghanistan as they were about to enjoy an evening meal at the end of a long day of work. Amnesty International also documented cases of so-called “rescuer attacks” in which those who ran to the aid of the victims of an initial drone strike were themselves targeted in a rapid follow-on attack. While there may have been a presumption that the rescuers were members of the group being targeted, it is difficult to see how such distinctions could be made in the immediate and chaotic aftermath of a missile strike.

Human Rights Watch investigated six strikes which killed 82 people, at least 57 of them civilians. HRW interviewed during six weeks in Yemen in 2012-2013, more than 90 people about the strikes including witnesses, relatives of those killed, lawyers, human rights defenders, and government officials. Human Rights Watch reviewed evidence including ordnance and videos from attack sites. Security concerns prevented visits to four of the attack areas.

Imran Khan leads march through Pakistan against American droness

 
Imran Khan, standing on a vehicle, adresses the participants of the 'march'.

Update: A thousands-strong motorcade rally against US drone strikes in Pakistan led by cricketer-turned-politician Imran Khan has been stopped from entering restive tribal regions.

After negotiations near the frontier, Mr Khan turned back and decided to hold a rally in the nearby town of Tank. But he said he still intended to reached his intended final destination, in South Waziristan.
The authorities have barred him from the region, citing security
Imran Khan the Pakistani former cricketer who became a politician, has begun a march to Pakistan's restive tribal areas to protest against US drone strikes. The two-day protest, which isn' t really a march as the protesters move in cars,  started in Islamabad and is due to end in South Waziristan, a major focus of strikes.
The start was with a few hundred participants, but Khan said to hope in the end tens of thousands will take part. He said that the attacks kill large numbers of civilians and foster support for militants. "No-one should be allowed to be judge, jury and executioner," Khan said before setting off. "It's totally counter-productive. All it does is it helps the militants to recruit poor people. Clearly if they were succeeding, these drone attacks, we would be winning the war. But there's a stalemate."
US officials insist strikes by the unmanned aircraft rarely claim civilian casualties and are an effective weapon against the Taliban and al-Qaeda.
Observers say  it is unclear how far the convoy of vehicles will be able to proceed and if  the Pakistani authorities will allow the march to reach the tribal areas. The Taliban have criticised both Mr Khan and the rally, but the politician told the BBC he was not worried about militant attacks. About 80 western peace activists are in the protest convoy.

 Recent research by the British Bureau  of Investigatig Journalism has found that since Obama took office three years ago, between 282 and 535 civilians have been credibly reported as killed including more than 60 children.  A three month investigation including eye witness reports has found evidence that at least 50 civilians were killed in follow-up strikes when they had gone to help victims. More than 20 civilians have also been attacked in deliberate strikes on funerals and mourners. The tactics have been condemned by leading legal experts.
Although the drone attacks were started under the Bush administration in 2004, they have been stepped up enormously under Obama.
There have been 260 attacks by unmanned Predators or Reapers in Pakistan by Obama’s administration – averaging one every four days. Because the attacks are carried out by the CIA, no information is given on the numbers killed.

American drone also kills Awlaki's teenage son

Abdel Rahman al-Awlaki

The Yemeni paper Yemen Post reports that an American drone has also killed the 17-year old son of the muslim cleric Anwar al-Awlaki, who was supposedly a member of Al-Qaedi of the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP). Anwar al-Awlaki was killed on 30 September. The Post reports that according to the al-Awlaki family back in Sana'a, Abdul Rahman al-Awlaki, the cleric's son would have run away from home after news of his father's death in a desperate bid to find him.
The 17 year-old was killed subsequently in an American air raid this Friday.  Outraged, his family is now speaking out against what they call a murder. "To kill a teenager is just unbelievable, really, and they claim that he is an al-Qaida militant. It's nonsense," said Nasser al-Awlaki, the boy's grandfather and former Yemeni agriculture minister. "They want to justify his killing, that's all,' he added.

Anwar al-Awlaki

Time reported Abdul Rahman's death also - on 27 October:  According to his relatives, Abdulrahman left the family home in the Sana'a area on Sept. 30 in search of his fugitive father who was hiding out with his tribe, the Awalak, in the remote, rugged southern province of Shabwa. Days after the teenager began his quest, however, his father was killed in a U.S. drone strike. Then, just two weeks later, the Yemeni government claimed another air strike killed a senior al-Qaeda militant. Abdulrahman, his teenage cousin and six others died in the attack as well. A U.S. official said the young man "was in the wrong place at the wrong time," and that the U.S. was trying to kill a legitimate terrorist — al-Qaeda leader Ibrahim al-Banna, who also died — in the strike that apparently killed the American teenager. Abdul Rahman al-Awlaki who was like his father a U.S citizen, was killed with his cousin, also a 17 year-old, in an American led Drone attack, which the U.S is justifying by claiming they were after alleged al-Qaeda militants. Since the death of the 2 underage boys, the U.S has been trying to spin the story by issuing a statement describing Abdu Rahman as a 20 year-old al-Qaeda militant, when indeed he was only a boy searching for his father. U.S officials have said that they were still assessing the details of the attack.