Airwars assessment
On Saturday, 19th April 2014, at 6 am, a drone strike hit a open-air Toyota Land Cruiser carrying armed men suspected of being AQAP militants and a second strike hit a nearby Toyota Hilux carrying 12 construction workers. The cars were traveling in the Hazmieh area of Al-Soumaa near the Al-Jorroh family project. The strike killed at least four civilians traveling in the Hilux and nine to twenty suspected militants in the cruiser. Nine other civilians were also injured and one militant was injured. The Yemeni Ministry of Defence confirmed the strike though they did not release either names or death tolls. The White House press secretary acknowledged broad support for multiple operations over the weekend while the CIA did not comment on any strikes.
40 year old Salem Nasser Al-Khashm and 24 year old Hussein Ahmed Saleh Abu Bakr, two of the labourers who were wounded in the strike described the attack and identified the civilians who were killed to media sources. Al-Kashm said that the drone instantly killed Yasser Ali Abed Rabbo Masoud, Sanad Hussain Al-Khashm and Ahmad Saleh Abu Bakr (65, father of Hussein Saleh). The latter was on his way to Saudi Arabia for work. Abdullah Nasser Al-Khashm (uncle of Hussein Saleh), who was initially injured, succumbed to his injuries at the hospital. Salem Nasser al-Kashm told CNN, Yemen Times and Gulf News that the following were injured in the strike: Abd Al-Rahman Hussein Al-Khashm (22), Salem Nasser Al-Khashm, Nasser Muhammad Al-Khashm, Najeeb Hassan Naif (35), and Bassam Al Hafidha and Bassam Al Taizi. Hussein Ahmed Saleh Abu Bakr identified Bassam Ahmed Salim Breim who was around 20 years old and Nasser Mohammed Nasser (35), who broke both legs and sustained shrapnel injuries to his abdomen in the attack. Salem Nasser Al-Kashm is pictured in the wheelchair, as are the other passengers who were injured and were taken to a local hospital to heal. As per their testimonies, four civilians were killed and eight wounded in the strike. Media reports claimed three to five civilian deaths and five to six injuries.
Sanad was survived by his father, wife and three children for whom he was the sole breadwinner. Fatima Hussein Abu Bakr Al-Khashm, Ahmed Saleh Abu Bakr Al-Khashm’s wife, saw his body before it was buried. It was covered in blood, crushed, and had wounds to his hand and neck. He supported four families at the time of his death. Umm Sami, wife of Salem Nasser Al-Kashm who sustained a shrapnel wound to his thigh, said her youngest, who is five years old, wakes up at night repeatedly asking for his father and has fallen sick. All relatives expressed deep grief, emphasising that their relatives were not members of AQAP and demanding accountability and justice for their deaths.
News organisations reported that nine (ABC and AP) to twenty (Al-Arabiya, KNN news) alleged militants were killed, with most news organisations reporting 13 as the figure, citing tribal or Yemeni military and security official sources. Only Long War Journal, linking to a report in Arabic by Al-Bayan, referenced a military source who said that the militant casualties supposedly included senior military in the AQAP: Abu Osama Al Hasni, Akram al Hafza, Seif Mohammad Seif Abd al Rahman al Sakhra, Ali Saleh al Khabani, and Adham Ali Mohsen. No other sources provided names of the militants.
Tribal sources speaking to Reuters, Al Jazeera and other groups observed that the drone had been circling al-Bayda for days prior to the 6 am strike after which the successive explosions in the ghost open-air vehicle lasted nearly an hour. Salem Nasser Al-Kashm who witnessed the strike from the Hilux 15 metres from the Land Cruiser, described the incident while in the hospital to Al Masdar as follows: “While we are going on the road linking the silo with the city of Al-Bayda, and we are in the Hazmieh area near the Al-Jarro family project, and there was a ghost car behind us, and a missile from the air bombed the ghost, which is about 15 meters away from us. When the ghost [was] bombed, shrapnel hit our car, forcing us to get out of our Hilux and hide in a water tank. Then, the targeted [vehicle] continued its successive explosions, which lasted for nearly an hour. when the plane returned to bomb near our car on the side of the road. This led to the death of three of our fellow workers and the injury of me and a number of my cousins.”
Hussein Ahmed Saleh Abu Bakr speaking to Mwatana provided his account as well. Hussein said: “The distance between our car and their car was about 20 to 30 meters. While we were chatting about work and its problems, we suddenly heard two explosions, one after another, and there were two aircrafts above us. The car behind us was struck. Shrapnel hit the rear tires of our car and it stopped.” He and three other friends took shelter in a culvert but when he returned after a few minutes he saw that his father Ahmad Saleh Bobak Al-Khashm had been killed by shrapnel that hit his chest and head. Another witness from a nearby village corroborated Hussein’s account. From his house he saw two small aircrafts with long wings circling the area. One was white and the other grey. Other residents from neighbouring villages confirmed that they recognised occupants of the Hilux car in which Salem Nasser Al-Kashm and other labourers were traveling. Abdullah Abdu Rabu Al-Khasm, speaking to Yemen Times, said that he did not recognise the passengers in the Land Cruiser ghost vehicle and “We saw the flags of Al-Qaeda on their car prior to the strike”. The pictures show that the Toyota Land Cruiser was hit and overturned, while the Hilux carrying the workers was burnt. A local journalist from al-Baydha told Gulf News that Al-Qaeda affiliates came to the scene four hours after the strike, collected the torn bodies of their comrades into plastic bags and buried them.
ABC news reported that Yemeni Embassy spokesperson Mohammed Albasha tweeted “Yes, [the] Yemeni government did and will compensate the families of civilian casualties as a result of [counter-terrorist] operations”. The Yemen Times report stated that the government handed over 30 rifles and YR 12 million ($55,000) to the injured and families of the dead referring to Ahmed Al-Azani, the Al-Sawma district security manager which was aligned with ABC news’ information from a local Yemen news outlet. Almasdar noted that tribal sheikhs in Al-Bayda governorate, headed by Sheikh Hussein Aidaroos Al-Thuraya, Sheikh Ali Al-Shtaimi and Sheikh Nasser Al-Azzani, made mediation efforts on Saturday evening and that the governor of Al-Bayda, Major General Al-Dhaheri Al-Shaddadi, and the former Minister of Interior, Major General Hussein Arab were also involved. According to the relative of one of the victims, speaking to Mwatana, the Yemeni government paid a lump sum of 12 million riyals (roughly US $55,848) and 30 Kalashnikovs that were divided between the families of the four dead. The families consider this payout a burial expense rather than compensation. Nasser Mohammed Nasser’s father asserted that “We want the perpetrators of this crime to be held accountable for what they have done.”
The incident occured at 06:00:00 local time.
The victims were named as:
Family members (7)
The victims were named as:
Summary
Sources (56) [ collapse]
Media
from sources (12) [ collapse]
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The smoking wreckage of the strike from a suspected US drone strike on Sawaa, April 19th (via Albida Press)
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A photograph of a vehicle in Sawaa, close to where civilians were reportedly killed in a suspected US drone strike, April 19th (via Albida Press)
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Yemeni's look on at a person killed following suspected US drone attacks, Sawaa, April 19th (via Albida Press) -
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A photograph of one of the people killed in a US drone attack on a vehicle in Sawaa, April 19th (via Abida Press) -
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A photograph of one of the people killed in a US drone attack on a vehicle in Sawaa, April 19th (via Abida Press) -
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A photograph of one of the people killed in a US drone attack on a vehicle in Sawaa, April 19th (via Abida Press) -
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A photograph of one of the people killed in a US drone attack on a vehicle in Sawaa, April 19th (via Abida Press) -
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A photograph of one of the people killed or injured in a US drone attack on a vehicle in Sawaa, April 19th (via Abida Press) -
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A photograph of one of the people injured in a US drone attack on a vehicle in Sawaa, April 19th (via Abida Press) -
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http://www.albidapress.net/press/news.php?action=view&id=35508#.U1Z_8ccbpm-Reportedly, civilians killed and injured in the car nearby the site where militants were targeted. -
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A photograph of a burnt out vehicle, the impact of a suspected US drone attack in Sawaa, April 19th (via Abida Press)