Geolocation
Airwars assessment
On January 23, 2013, at least two civilians were killed by alleged U.S. drone attacks in central Sanaa province. Between two and five militants were also killed in the strike.
In the immediate aftermath Yemeni media named five of the dead as: Salem Mohsen Jamel, Ali Mohammed Jamel, Mohsem Mohsen Jamel and Al Nashiri. Rabee Hamoud Lahib (aka Rabiee Lahib) also died, despite being reported dead in November 2012. He was said to be from the area and the target of the strike. Two of the alleged militants were reportedly unidentified.
A trio of human rights groups investigated the attack in subsequent months. They submitted evidence to an April 2013 Senate Judiciary Subcommittee hearing. They reported four passengers were killed in the strike, two of them civilians. The driver Salim Hussayn Ahmad Jamil, 20 or 22, was a literature student who freelanced as a taxi driver. He was killed along with one of his relatives Ali Ali Salih al Qawili, 33. They were reportedly stopped by two unidentified men who asked to pay them for a ride. The Ministry of Interior confirmed Ali Ali Salih was among the dead. He was a school teacher. His brother gave investigators his attendance slip showing he had been teaching on the day of the strike. According to Reuters, “A copy of the Khalid bin al-Walid school attendance register shows Qawli’s signature for the first four days of that week. Under Thursday it says: “Martyred on January 23, 2013.”
The Yemen government now describes the father of three as: ‘We can confirm the following: Ali al Qawli… did not know or communicate with the individuals who rented the mentioned car and their death was a matter of fate.’ His son, Moaz Ali al Qawili, 11, attended the same school his father taught at – Khalid bin al-Walid School.
Swedish journalists visited the scene of the strike on February 23 2013 and found the ground was “still black with ashes on the spot where the car exploded”. Qalil Lahib, “a relative of one of the dead”, told the journalists all four men in the car were blown to pieces. He spoke “while picking up bits of cloth and tiny pieces of human bone and tissue from the ground”. And a second man reportedly showed the reporters a piece of Hellfire missile left from the strike. Experts from the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute confirmed the fragments were from a Hellfire. The Swedish journalists named the four killed in the strike as Salim Hussayn Ahmad Jamil, Ali Ali Salih al Qawili, Rabee Hamoud Lahib and Naji Ali Saad. The journalists saw “a document from the Yemeni Interior Ministry written after the attack” which said “the teacher and the student were completely innocent. They were not suspected of any crime nor linked to any terror organisation.” The government also offered compensation to the families which they disgustedly rejected. Lahib and Saad were reportedly the probable targets of the strike. But Lahib “lived in a village just an hour’s drive from the capital Sanaa, he was a neighbour to some of the country’s top politicians.” He was a member of the village council and “travelled to the capital Sanaa every other day, passing several military checkpoints on the way”. An unnamed relative asked: “If they suspected him of any crime, why didn’t they seize him and charge him?”
Alkarama also published a report that “around 8 pm, a vehicle with eight passengers was hit by two missiles fired from a Hellfire drone, which was flying about 1 km from the village of Al Masna’a in the community of Khawlan administrated by the province of Sana’a. The bodies were shredded and charred, scattered and difficult to identify. The target of the attack was Rabee Hamoud Lahib( الهب حمود ربيع ,( wanted by the Yemeni authorities and presented as a member of Al Qaeda, which some deny. Among those affected were also two civilians unconnected with armed groups….Inhabitants report having heard the buzzing of drones during the 10 days preceding the strike, a sound resembling that of diesel-powered generators.”
Alkarama spoke with Ali’s brother, Mohamed Ali Al-Qawli, who said that “My brother and cousin had been invited to Jahana, and at about seven o’clock they went to the market with colleagues. Two people from Sanhan came to them and asked if they could drive them for a fee…. people saw a drone firing two missiles towards Jahana at 8.10 pm….we went to the scene. We were in shock. Bodies were still burning and their limbs were scattered. There were six victims, my brother, my cousin and four men from Sanhan. We found four craters caused by the impact of the missiles. We tried to put the fire out in the car for more than half an hour, then we collected the scattered limbs until 11 pm when we transported them to the hospital in order to bury them later.”
Mwatana reported that “the brother of Rabee Lahib, while denying that Lahib was part of Al Qaeda or any armed organization, said: “My brother Rabee was available and could have been summoned to any police station or any court or any other agency. He would have attended and would have proven his innocence against any charges.” Similarly, Naji Saad’s brother told Mwatana that “Saad was not affiliated with Al Qaeda, but was a soldier in the army, and a bodyguard of a senior leader in the army, Ali Mohsen al-Ahmar. Naji’s brother asked: “Why didn’t the state arrest [Naji] or summon him through the military headquarters he was affiliated to if he were [an Al Qaeda member?” According to local residents, Lahib, a local councilman and an active supporter of al-Qaeda, and Saad, a powerful general’s bodyguard, were well-known members of former President Saleh’s tribe and residents of his hometown.”
The incident occured at 20:00:00 local time.
The victims were named as:
Family members (2)
The victims were named as:
Geolocation notes
Reports of the incident mention the village of Khawlan (خولان), for which the generic coordinates are: 15.184652, 44.493973. Due to limited satellite imagery and information available to Airwars, we were unable to verify the location further.
Summary
Sources (70) [ collapse]
Media
from sources (37) [ collapse]
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A photograph of the destroyed vehicle following alleged U.S drone strikes on Khawlan, January 23rd (via Yemen Observer)
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The burn out vehicle, photographed some time after U.S drones allegedly struck, January 23rd (via Rolling Stone)
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"Khawlan, Sana’a, 3 May 2013 - Haj Ali Al Qawli holding a photo of his son Ali Ali al-Qawli with his grandchildren Mouad, Hajar and Mohamed. Ali Ali al-Qawli was killed during an American airstrike on Khawlan on 23 January 2013"
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"Mohamed, the son of Ali Ali al-Qawli, a teacher killed by an American airstrike in the industrial zone of Khawlan on 23 January 2013. © Alkarama"
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"Haj Ali Al Qawli, next to a picture of his son Ali Al-Qawli with his grandchildren. Ali Al-Qawli was killed during an American airstrike on Khawlan on 23 January 2013. © Alkarama"
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Children of Ali Al-Qawli, killed by alleged US drone strikes on January 23, 2013. (Image posted by Mwatana)
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Hussain Jamil al-Qawli (left) holds a photo of his son Salim al-Qawli, 20; and Muhammad al-Qawli holds a photo of his brother Ali al-Qawli, 34. Salim and Ali al-Qawli were killed in a drone strike in al-Masnaah on January 23, 2013. © 2013 Letta Tayler/Human Rights Watch
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On January 23, 2013, one or more missiles launched from a drone killed four people traveling in a sports utility vehicle (SUV) on a back road toward the town of Sanhan, about 20 kilometers southeast of Sanaa (Human Rights Watch)
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Aftermath of alleged US drone strikes on January 23, 2013. (Image posted by Shuaib Almosawa via Facebook)
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Aftermath of alleged US drone strikes on January 23, 2013. (Image posted by Shuaib Almosawa via Facebook)
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Aftermath of alleged US drone strikes on January 23, 2013. (Image posted by Shuaib Almosawa via Facebook)
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This media contains graphic content. Click to unblur.
Graphic image of aftermath of alleged US drone strikes on January 23, 2013. (Image posted by Shuaib Almosawa via Facebook) -
This media contains graphic content. Click to unblur.
Graphic image of aftermath of alleged US drone strikes on January 23, 2013. (Image posted by Shuaib Almosawa via Facebook) -
This media contains graphic content. Click to unblur.
Graphic image of aftermath of alleged US drone strikes on January 23, 2013. (Image posted by Shuaib Almosawa via Facebook) -
This media contains graphic content. Click to unblur.
Graphic image of aftermath of alleged US drone strikes on January 23, 2013. (Image posted by Shuaib Almosawa via Facebook) -
This media contains graphic content. Click to unblur.
Graphic image of aftermath of alleged US drone strikes on January 23, 2013. (Image posted by Shuaib Almosawa via Facebook) -
This media contains graphic content. Click to unblur.
Graphic image of aftermath of alleged US drone strikes on January 23, 2013. (Image posted by Shuaib Almosawa via Facebook) -
This media contains graphic content. Click to unblur.
Graphic image of aftermath of alleged US drone strikes on January 23, 2013. (Image posted by Shuaib Almosawa via Facebook) -
Aftermath of alleged US drone strikes on January 23, 2013. (Image posted by Shuaib Almosawa via Facebook)
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Graphic image of aftermath of alleged US drone strikes on January 23, 2013. (Image posted by Shuaib Almosawa via Facebook)
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Graphic image of aftermath of alleged US drone strikes on January 23, 2013. (Image posted by Shuaib Almosawa via Facebook)
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Aftermath of alleged US drone strikes on January 23, 2013. (Image posted by Shuaib Almosawa via Facebook)
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Aftermath of alleged US drone strikes on January 23, 2013. (Image posted by Shuaib Almosawa via Facebook)
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Aftermath of alleged US drone strikes on January 23, 2013. (Image posted by Shuaib Almosawa via Facebook)
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Aftermath of alleged US drone strikes on January 23, 2013. (Image posted by Shuaib Almosawa via Facebook)
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Aftermath of alleged US drone strikes on January 23, 2013. (Image posted by Shuaib Almosawa via Facebook)
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Aftermath of alleged US drone strikes on January 23, 2013. (Image posted by Shuaib Almosawa via Facebook)
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Aftermath of alleged US drone strikes on January 23, 2013. (Image posted by Shuaib Almosawa via Facebook)
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Aftermath of alleged US drone strikes on January 23, 2013. (Image posted by Shuaib Almosawa via Facebook)
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Aftermath of alleged US drone strikes on January 23, 2013. (Image posted by Shuaib Almosawa via Facebook)
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Aftermath of alleged US drone strikes on January 23, 2013. (Image posted by Shuaib Almosawa via Facebook)
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Aftermath of alleged US drone strikes on January 23, 2013. (Image posted by Shuaib Almosawa via Facebook)
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Aftermath of alleged US drone strikes on January 23, 2013. (Image posted by Shuaib Almosawa via Facebook)
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Aftermath of alleged US drone strikes on January 23, 2013. (Image posted by Shuaib Almosawa via Facebook)
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Aftermath of alleged US drone strikes on January 23, 2013. (Image posted by Shuaib Almosawa via Facebook)
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Aftermath of alleged US drone strikes on January 23, 2013. (Image posted by Shuaib Almosawa via Facebook)
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Aftermath of alleged US drone strikes on January 23, 2013. (Image posted by Shuaib Almosawa via Facebook)