In 2017, Mwatana documented five drone attacks in Al Bayda and Abyan governorates. These attacks left 9 civilians, including two children and two women, dead. Mwatana also documented two incidents of U.S. Military landing in Marib and Al Bayda governorates, leaving no less than 19 civilians, including 12 children, killed and no less than 53 others wounded, including 5 children and 43 women.
Since September 11, 2001, the U.S. and the Yemen governments closely cooperated in the fight against terrorism. In 2010, the U.S. State Department designated AQAP as a Foreign Terrorist Organization, and in 2012, amended that designation to include Ansar Al-Sharia as an alias of AQAP.[1]
In a statement, the U.S. Defense Department, said that during 2017, U.S. forces have conducted more than120 strikes to remove key leaders of Al-Qaida in the Arabian Peninsula, indicating that most of the strikes were conducted by drones. The statement only indicated the results of three of these strikes during October- November 2017.[2]
The U.S. government has admitted that it killed more than 3100 people between 2009 and 2016, in its targeted killings program in Pakistan, Somalia, Yemen and other parts of the world[3]. However, some civil Society groups say that the number is higher than that. The U.S. government provided little information on casualties among combatants and civilians and on the legal basis of certain attacks.[4] U.S. President Donald Trump continued the program that mainly depends on drone strikes and military landing operations. It is said that he is prepared to expand it to areas such as Mali and Niger Where U.S. forces are involved in counterterrorism operations.[5]
The Legal Framework
Pursuant to the laws of war applicable to Yemen, warring parties must always ensure that civilians and civilian objects are spared the effects of war. They must take precautionary measures to avoid or minimize the possibility of killing or injuring civilians or destroying their property. Warring parties must reduce the harm to civilians, including refraining from conducting any military operations near densely populated areas, and moving civilians away from military objectives.
Whether targeted killings far away from traditional battlefields carried out by US drone aircraft in Yemen have been subject to the rules of International Humanitarian Law, whose basic principles guarantee the protection of civilians or they have been subject to the norms of International Human Rights Law in the absence of traditional armed conflict, which prohibits the use of lethal force except to protect against an imminent threat to life, or have been subject to the US rules for targeted killing, a policy directive announced by former US President Barack Obama in May 2013 that requires anyone to be attacked outside what the US government deems outside of “active hostilities.” to pose a “imminent and continuing threat” to the lives of American citizens, with the requirement of “near certainty” that no civilians are killed or injured, the United States cannot evade the legal and moral responsibility for the civilian casualties of its targeted killings in Yemen. The U.S. government’s continuous attempts to keep these operations in loose frames to protect them and protect their results from evaluation and scrutiny, and to ensure minimum control and maximum secrecy around them, does not absolve it of its responsibility.
On the pretext that they are engaged in a borderless armed conflict with groups such as ISIS and Al-Qaeda, successive US administrations have reduced the level and frequency of high-level inter-agency scrutiny of targeted attacks, giving more power to the CIA and the Department of Defense to carry out drone strikes and other lethal operations outside the traditional battlefields, thereby causing more civilian casualties.
The military landing operations and drone strikes, which were verified by Mwatana for Human Rights, and which left civilian casualties, may have breached the laws of war. Such strikes did not distinguish between combatants and civilians, or because it resulted in civilian casualties disproportionate to the anticipated military advantage. According to the rules of International Humanitarian Law, only legitimate military objectives can be legally targeted. The attacking party shall take all feasible precautions to verify that the target is a military objective before launching an attack and to minimize the harm to civilians.
While the continued civilian casualties of targeted killings of drone strikes and ground operations in Yemen violate international legal obligations of the United States, it also shows its unwillingness to address, recognize and compensate for the damage to the civilian population in Yemen.
Incidents:
- At midnight Sunday, January 29, 2017, around 02:00 am, U.S. Troops launched a ground offensive in Yakla Village in Walad Rabee District, in Al Bayda governorate. The offensive resulted in killing 15 civilians, including nine children and four women, as well as wounding five others, including four children.
According to the statements obtained by Mwatana for Human Rights, helicopters were used in this operation, and the U.S. troops stormed into the village and opened fire indiscriminately. In this area lies the house of Abdul Raoof Ahmed Nasser Al-Thahab (40 years old), who the U.S. Accuses of belonging to al-Qaeda organization. The offensive lasted until dawn, around 05:00 am.
Amer Ali Abdullah (40 years old), who was injured in this incident, said: “A bullet hit my leg. After dawn I went out to check on my relatives; I headed toward the house of my cousin, Ali Musad. There, I was shocked to see my sister, Dhabiyah Al-Ameri (40 years old) dead, with a bullet in her head; her son, Mursal (six years old), was dead next to her.”[6]
Eyewitness Daris Ali Ahmed Al-Ameri (30 years old), said: “I arrived in the house of Mohammed Abdullah Mabkhout; it was on fire. I also saw two bodies of children; they were all charred.”[7]
One of the victim’s relatives, Aziz Mabkhout Mohsen Al-Ameri (55 years old), said: “In the morning, I found my cousin, Futaim Saleh Mabkhout (35 years old), outside of her husband’s house, Mabkhout Al-Ameri. She tried to run from the gunfire. She was killed with shots to her chest; her baby was in her lap, smeared with blood, but unharmed.”[8]
- On May 23, 2017 after midnight at 01:30 am, US troops carried out a ground operation in Al-Atheel village, Al-Jawbah district, Marib governorate. The attack left no less than 5 civilians, including one child dead, and no less than 5 others including one child wounded. Saleh Mohammed Saleh Salem Al-A’adhal (22 years old), who is suspected Al-Qaeda member, was also killed in this operation.
According to the statements of the villagers in the interviews conducted by Mwatana with them, a month prior to the incident, drone used to circulate above our heads on a regular basis. Helicopters and drones were used to attack the village and fire was opened indiscriminately. The operation continued until 04:30 am.
Abdrubbo Nasir Al-A’adhal Al-Muradi (40 years old), whose father, Nasir Al-A’adhal Al-Muradi (90 years old) was killed in the attack, said: ““a week before the incident, my father finished building a mosque in the village. He was killed in his mosque.” [9]
Abdul Rahman Saeed Salem Al-A’adhal Al-Muradi (42 years old) said: “my cousin, Al-Ghadir Saleh Salem Al-A’adhal (35 years old), was asleep with his wife when they heard a movement outside the window. Then suddenly, fire was open on them. Al-Ghadir sustained a shot to his chest and was bleeding. He was groaning in pain and his wife put her hands on his mouth to maim his groaning so that the troops would not hear his groaning. He continued and could not be taken to the hospital until dawn. He died before getting to the hospital.”[10]
- On Sunday afternoon August 13, 2017, at about 03:30 pm, a drone strike in Al-Khubar-Marwn village, Khanfar district, Abyan governorate, killed Al-Khadar Ali Saeed Jaradah (19 years old) and Ali Haydar Saeed Jaradah (17 years old).
The two young men were sitting under a tree chewing khat leaves, near their bee hives. They transferred their bees to the location where the incident took place just days ago because of the density of the trees there.
Abdullah Saleh Jaradah (30 years old), one of the relatives of the victims and an eyewitness, said: “three days before the incident, I noticed, as did the other villagers in the area, that drones were circulating above on a regular basis. When I heard the explosion, I was at home, about four kilometers away from the spot where the incident took place. I headed to the place. I arrived there at 04:00 pm, and I was shocked to see the remaining body parts and the remaining pieces of their clothes hanging on the tree branches. The place was overwhelmed with the smell of gunpowder. I gathered their remaining body parts, which the other villagers who arrived at the scene before me, did not gather. I buried their parts under the tree. I will continue to recall this incident whenever I hear the sound of a drone hovering above. Drones continue to circulate in the area. Any of us could be killed by these drones. I could be among the next victims.”[11]
One of the relatives of the victims, Yassin Saeed Saleh (22 years old) added: “Al-Khadr and Ali were newly married and they were always thinking of earning their livelihood. Everyone is shocked at this incident. How could drones, known for their high-precision, target people who do not have anything to do with terrorist organizations?”[12]
One of the villagers in the area said: It is true that some of the residents in the area are member of Al-Qaeda but they do not live in the villages; they live in the mountains. A similar scenario took place in a nearby village on March 4, 2017, where a drone attack killed Salem Amad Abdullah (34 years old) and Hadi Ali Ahmed Abdullah (28 years old), who do not have anything to do with terrorist organizations.”[13]
- On Thursday November 23, 2017 at 05:30 pm, a drone strike in Wadi Linhas village, in Yakla area, Wald Rabee district, Al Bayda governorate, killed Ahmed Salem Mabkhoot Al-Ameri (25 years old) and Mohammed Mused Abbad (14 years).
They were killed when they went out of the Al-AMeri khat farm. They were on a motorbike, heading for Musad Abbad, the father of the dead child. The house was located 300 meters away from the farm.
In his statement on the incident, Musad Abbad said: “Mohammed’s sisters were crying, screaming and slapping their faces at the site of seeing their brother on fire after the strike. His mother was the first to arrive at the scene. She was hysterically trying to put the fire off with her clothes. I moved to Marib to protect my family.”[14]
- In the same village of Yakla, on Thursday, December 14, 2017, at 06:00 pm, a drone air strike killed Dhabiyah Ali Ahmed Al-Taisi (63 years old) and Hajar Ahmed Saleh Al-Taisi (33 years old).
The attack took place when Dhabiyah was leaving the house of one of her neighbors; she was hit [with the missile], while Hajar was killed with shrapnel pieces. She was at the kitchen, preparing the dinner meal.
In his statement to Mwatana for Human Rights, Dhabiyah’s son, Ahmed Zubaid Al-Taisi (35 years old), said: “Our throats have become sore speaking to one and all about the tragedies facing us. Every time the unmanned aircraft come back to kill innocent people. For God’s sake, what crime the women did to be targeted by the U.S. aircraft?”[15]
Hajar’s husband, Mahmoud Saleh Ahmed (38 years old), said: “Few months earlier, my wife, Hajar, suffered a miscarriage due to a drone air strike that occurred in this area. And this time she was killed in a drone strike when she was pregnant.” [16]
[1]Open Society Foundation, “Death by Drone” report by Open Society Foundation and Mwatana for Human Rights, https://www.opensocietyfoundations.org/sites/default/files/death-drones-report-eng-20150413.pdf
[2]US Department of Defense, Centcom Officials Provide Update on Recent Counterterrorism Strikes in Yemen, https://www.defense.gov/News/Article/Article/1401445/centcom-officials-provide-update-on-recent-counterterrorism-strikes-in-yemen/
[3] Office of the Director of National Intelligence, summary of information regarding u.s. Counterterrorism strikes outside areas of active hostilities, https://www.dni.gov/index.php/newsroom/reports-publications/item/1741-summary-of-information-regarding-u-s-counterterrorism-strikes-outside-areas-of-active-hostilities.
[4] “Out of the Shadows” report, Executive Summary, https://www.outoftheshadowsreport.com/executive-summary/.
[5]NBC News, U.S. Now Moving Toward Armed Drones, Lethal Force in Niger, https://www.nbcnews.com/news/africa/u-s-now-moving-toward-armed-drones-lethal-force-niger-n814341.
[6] Mwatana for Human Rights interviewed Amer Ali Abdullah on February 1, 2017.
[7]Mwatana for Human Rights interviewed Daris Ali Amed Al-Ameri on February 1, 2017.
[8] Mwatana for Human Rights interviewed Aziz Mabkhout Al-Ameri on February 1, 2017.
[9]Mwatana interviewed Abdrubbo Nasir Al-A’adhal Al-Muradi on June 16, 2017.
[10] Mwatana interviewed Abdul Rahman Saeed Salem Al-A’adhal Al-Muradi on June 16, 2017.
[11] Mwatana interviewed Abdullah Saleh Jaradah on October 5, 2017.
[12] Mwatana interviewed Yassin Saeed Saleh on October 5, 2017.
[13] Mwatana interviewed one of the local residents on October 5, 2017.
[14]Mwatana interviewed Musad Abbad on December 13, 2017.
[15] Mwatana for Human Rights interviewed Ahmed Zubaid Al-Taisi on December 19, 2017.
[16] Mwatana for Human Rights interviewed Mahmoud Saleh Ahmed on December 18, 2017.