Geolocation
Airwars assessment
Between two and seven people, including one child and multiple Al Qaeda militants, were killed and another child was injured in an alleged US drone strike that launched four to five missiles hitting a vehicle in Al Mahashma or Khabb wa ash Sha’af in Al-Jawf Province around noon on June 9th, 2013.
The lowest death toll was provided by Al-Masdar Online as two whereas other estimates included three, five, and six dead. The highest death toll was provided by Awraq Press who cited seven killed including three Saudi nationals. Multiple sources claimed that Saleh Hassan Saleh Heridan was killed in the drone strike. Al-Masdar was informed by his family members that they collected his body. Local journalist Abdulrazzaq al Jamal who monitors AQAP said Heridan was the group’s ‘greatest mind’ in Jawf and Yemeni government officials have alleged Heridan was a key figure in enabling the movement of money and fighters from Saudi Arabia to Yemen. Although he was said to have been affiliated or a leader of AQAP, some analysts questioned whether he presented “a continuing and imminent threat to the American people” and therefore whether it was worth targeting him.
The child who was killed was named as Abdulaziz Heridan, Heridan’s younger brother, who the CIA estimated was aged between six to 13 years old according to the LA Times. It also emerged that the CIA gave Congress a classified briefing on the boy’s death, but refused to acknowledge it publicly. Abdulaziz’s death ‘set off a firestorm of complaints’ the agency reported. Their father asked: “Abdulaziz had nothing to do with Al Qaeda. If his brother was accused of being an Al Qaeda member, what was the charge [against] Abdulaziz? Why was he killed?” The child’s death sparked outrage after Obama’s speech promising the accuracy of drone strikes and further transparency. Mansour Saleh al-Obaahah, the teenager who was injured in the drone strike, was tending to the sheep when he saw a slim black aircraft with long wings flying above that dropped four missiles on the SUV. He saw Heridan and Abdulaziz crawl out of the car after the first missile and Heridan hid behind a small tree. Nevertheless, they were both killed by the subsequent missiles.
The identity of the others who died in the strike were shrouded in some doubt. Ahrar News named Ali Dream as one of the militants who was killed. Awraq Press claimed that Sultan Aziz Heridan, and Ali Saleh Aqarin were the ones killed. They also claimed that three Saudis were killed including one who went by the name of ‘Saraya’. @RAMY_EASA2016 tweeted that two Al Qaeda leaders were killed but did not name either. Additionally, eyewitnesses told Marib Press that “they found the bodies of two people that had turned into charred pieces, while three other charred bodies were found inside the car after the fire was put out” meaning that the identities of the others were harder to pinpoint.
The aforementioned teenaged witness, Mansour Saleh al-Obaahah, was injured in the drone strike. He was 15 years old at the time and a young shepherd. He was hit in the left eye by shrapnel from the missiles. He told Mwatana: “At the moment, I felt as though I had lost half my face. I felt as though I was about to die. I fainted for a few seconds.” He was rushed to a private hospital in Sana’a but did not regain vision in his eye.
The drone strike was allegedly undertaken by the US, specifically the CIA. A munitions expert who evaluated the images noted that the craters were consistent with Hellfire missiles launched by the US. Locals told Al-Masdar Online that they could not approach the car “which continued to explode several times, and [locals] did not know whether it was the type of missiles that exploded or that the car was loaded with weapons.” The vehicle that was hit was a Hyundai Santa Fe. It was struck by four to five missiles. Resident Abdul Salam Abdullah told CNN: ‘Any of our children could have easily been killed by a shrapnel if they were in the wrong place during the attack… The suspects were in a vehicle and the attack could have easily happened far from homes and civilian presence.’
The strike occurred near the Saudi border in northern Yemen in the Khabb wa ash Sha’af district in the Al-Jawf Province. The area is mainly grazing land for sheep and inhabited by bedouins. Nashwan News reported that the strike occurred around noon.
The incident occured at approximately 12:00 pm local time.
The victims were named as:
Geolocation notes
Reports of the incident mention the district of Khabb wa ash Sha’af (خب و الشعف) in the Al-Jawf governorate (الجوف), for which the generic coordinates are: 16.730073, 45.715020. Due to limited satellite imagery and information available to Airwars, we were unable to verify the location further.
Summary
Sources (56) [ collapse]
Media
from sources (2) [ collapse]
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This media contains graphic content. Click to unblur.
Graphic image of the remains of victims of alleged US drone strikes on June 9, 2013. (Image posted by Ahrar News via Facebook)