The US has been under fire for the use of drones to kill terrorists, which ends up killing civilians as well. Now, a US Drone has killed more than a dozen people en route to a wedding in Yemen.
The Associated Press reported that the attack took place in the city of Radda, the capital of Bayda province. The Drone mistook the wedding party cars for suspected terrorists.
In Nov. we reported a US Drone strike that left a toddler killed and two women injured in Afghanistan. The situation caused Afghanistan’s President Hamid Karzai to denounce the US military and left the two countries relationship on unfavorable terms.
Drone strikes are not new in Yemen, in January a teacher was killed in a drone strike after giving some strangers a ride in the cab him and his nephew were in.
At the time Reuters UK was told that the attack, had killed six suspected terrorist, but that number included al-Qwali and his nephew, who were not terrorist.
Science teacher, Ali Nasser al-Qwali was killed in the drone strike and his brother Mohammed had to identify his body, “We picked up the burned body parts. They were all over. We picked them up and put them in plastic bags, and took them to the hospital so we could bury them the next day. "My brother was completely charred. We identified him by his teeth. It's as if they killed animals.” Mohammed al-Qwali said.
Now that another drone strike has caused more civilian lives to be caught in the crossfire of eliminating terrorist, the US is not leaving a good impression on Yemen civilians. While the U.S. is trying to make the Yemen’s dislike al Qaeda, they are making al Qaeda look like angels.
“These (drone) strikes create more terrorism. In our area there was never anyone linked to al Qaeda. After the strike, everyone in the started listening to al Qaeda types, exchanging videos on mobile phones,” Mohammed said to Reuters.
With the drone strikes creating anti-American sentiment, critics feel that the US’ drone operation needs to be transparent instead of secret. Medea Benjamin, co-founder of the CodePink anti-war group spoke against drones according to AFP. “We are questioning the entire issue of a policy that is done under the shadows of secrecy without accountability."