Geolocation
Airwars assessment
On Thursday 12th December 2013, at around 4:30 in the afternoon, an alleged US drone launched between two to four missiles at a wedding procession which killed between 11 to 18 civilians and injured between seven to 110 in Radaa in al-Durrah, al Bayda, Yemen. The wedding convoy was reportedly returning from Al-Basier in the Shriya District. The US is believed to be responsible for the strike and US officials speaking anonymously to news media have commented on the strike, without confirming US involvement.
Locals and relatives of those killed identified 11 of the dead as Hussein Muhammad Saleh al Amiri, 65 years old; Muhammad Ali Musaad al Amiri, 30 years old; Ali Abdullah Muhammad al Taysi, 35 years old; Zidan Mohammed al Amiri, 40 years old; Saif Abdullah Mabkhout al Amiri, 20 years old; Hussein Muhammad al Taysi, 20 years old; Mutlaq Hammoud Muhammad al Taysi, 45 years old; Saleh Abdullah Mabkhout, 30 years old; Aref Mohammed al Taysi, 30 years old; Saleh Musaad al Amiri, 42 years old; Musaad Dhaifallah al Amiri, 25 years old. Aref Mohammed al Taysi left behind a blind father, a wife, and seven children, including a newborn son. The men killed were migrant laborers in Saudi Arabia who herded sheep, or farmed qat.
The wounded included Abdullah Muhammad al Taysi, 52 years old; Muhammad Ali Abdullah al Amiri, 45 years old, who suffered multiple shrapnel wounds; Naif Abdullah Ali al Taysi, 30 years old, who lost his vision in one eye and broke his leg; Muhammad Ali Ahmad al Amiri, 40 years old, who lost body parts including part of one leg; Nasser Ali Ahmad al Amiri, 36 years old, whose back and leg were wounded; and Abdullah Aziz Mabkhout, 30 years old, who had a broken hand and leg. HRW quoted relatives that all of those killed were from the al Amiri and al Taysi families from the Yakla area of al-Bayda province. The bride whose wedding procession was targeted suffered a shrapnel injury to her face.
According to Shuaib Almosawa, local officials claimed that two AQAP operatives were among the 12 militants “either killed or injured”: 37 year old Nayef Ali Al-Ahraq and 30 year old Muhammed Ali al Amiri – as there are three men with the name “Muhammed Ali al Amiri” who were killed/injured in this incident, it is unclear which man this refers to, while Nayef Ali Al-Ahraq who was not previously know to be a victim of this incident is considered to be a militant but it is unclear if they were killed or injured. AFP stated that “two of the dead whose names were released – Saleh Al-Tays (al Taysi) and Abdullah Al-Tays (al Taysi) – had figured in the past on Yemeni government lists of wanted Al-Qaeda suspects”. Saleh Al-Tays (al Taysi) has been classified as a militant as no local sources were found which mentioned him as a civilians, and Abdullah Al-Tays (al Taysi) may be the same as Abdullah Muhammad al Taysi who was initially listed as “wounded” but without a middle name it is unclear, and therefore Abdullah Al-Tays (al Taysi) has been classified as a militant while Abdullah Muhammad al Taysi has been classified as a civilian until further information comes to light.
The convoy was carrying 50-60 people in 11 four-wheel drive vehicles, the 4.30pm (1.30pm GMT) attack hit four or five of them, fully destroying two of the cars and partially burning three of them. They were going from the home of the groom, Abdullah Mabkhut al Amiri, to the bride, Warda al Sorimi. Participants in the procession carried rifles as celebratory gunfire is customary in weddings.
Local sheikh Abdullah Muhammad al Taysi was driving one of the vehicles in the convoy. He described the attack and aftermath to Human Rights Watch: “Blood was everywhere, the bodies of the people who were killed and injured were scattered everywhere… I saw the missile hit the car that was just behind the car driven by my son. I went there to check on my son. I found him tossed to the side. I turned him over and he was dead. He was struck in his face, neck, and chest. My son, Ali!”
Abdullah Muhammad, speaking to Amnesty, described the sequence of events. The wedding procession, returning, paused as a car with a flat tire was repaired. During this break, the missile hit a 2005 Toyota Hilux pickup truck. Its passengers, three to four men, had jumped out and fled when hearing the drone’s telltale increasing buzzing sound. Three other missiles hit near the Hilux and the shrapnel reached four nearby vehicles and killed and wounded passengers inside them. Local eyewitnesses told news sources like Adengad that fumes rose from the strike site. An official speaking to the Charlotte Observer said after the strike, there were charred bodies and burnt cars on the road. There is one picture of the victims surrounded by a crowd.
Fatah Salem was driving his Toyota Land Cruiser with seven passengers in the convoy when he heard the sound of drones. He described to Aljazeera that seconds before the first missile hit, three men in a Toyota Hill, which was three vehicles behind Fatah, seemed to anticipate what was about to happen, abandoned their pickup truck, and bolted across the pale gray sand. “Four people were killed in my car,” Fatah recounted, as he was the only occupant of his vehicle to escape with no injuries.
There are slight discrepancies in where the raid took place. Most sources reported that the raid took place in Qaifa, near the town of Radaa, or Baqifa Rada area in Al-Bayda but Hour News located the raid in Aakla in Aqabat Zaaj.
Most news sources reported that the initial death toll was between 10 to 14 (New York Times, BBC, Wall Street Journal, Global Post, Star AP, CNN in order of increasing casualties) citing security officials. AFP, Al Akhbar and LA Times reported that the number of deaths had reached 17 overnight, citing medical sources and local residents.
Injury tolls provided by local sources varied, with Yemen Press reporting that in addition to the 10 killed, 12 were wounded while Hour News put the number of injuries at 30. The highest injury toll was reported by @samy_diab, which stated that 110 people had been wounded in the attack.
An activist from the province told the Bureau they were “notable” families in the region. The dead were all from the local area and many were survived by large families.
The elderly mother of one victim said: “Whatever we do, they will never look at us as human beings… We end up with wounds they cannot see.” The surviving relatives escalated their protest against the government by blocking a main road to the capital, Sanaa, and demanding an end to US raids.
The Yemeni government were quick to tell journalists all the dead were militants. However, an official told NBC: “It is a total mess. It is not completely clear who was killed.” And a different “top Yemeni national security official” told CNN none of the dead were on any list of wanted terrorists.
To appease the complaining families, the central government authorised the provincial governor to hold a public meeting to apologise. The governor called the strike a “mistake” and gave the families of the dead and wounded 34 million Yemeni Rials (£95,000) and 101 Kalashnikov rifles – a traditional tribal apology.
The US did not comment at first. The day after the strike, one US official told Reuters the administration was aware of reports but said: “We have no information that corroborates these reports”. US officials, speaking on condition of anonymity, later told the Associated Press 9-12 militants were killed in the attack. However, after successive investigations by journalists found civilians were killed, unnamed US officials said Washington would investigate the strike.
Two US investigations reportedly showed all the dead were militants, and unnamed officials said the target was Shawqi Ali Ahmed al Badani, responsible for an international terror alert in the summer of 2013. Al Badani’s listing on a “sanctions list” of top wanted terrorists said: “He has long been involved in terrorist activity as a member of [AQAP]”. It continued: “In 2012, al Badani reportedly assigned an AQAP operative to target the U.S. Embassy in Sanaa, Yemen, for attacks. He also has been described as being connected to a suicide bomber who killed over 100 Yemeni soldiers in a May 2012 attack. Furthermore, he played a key role in a plan for a major attack in summer 2013 that led the United States to close 19 diplomatic posts across the Middle East and Africa.”
The Yemeni government had also put a reward of $100,000 for his capture, but a Yemeni security analyst said before this strike “most people had never heard of him”. Al Badani was reportedly in the fourth vehicle in the wedding convoy, though local villagers said it was unlikely he was even in the vicinity of the strike, given that he hails from another part of the country.
However, witnesses and survivors told Aljazeera that the target appeared to be a man named Nasr al-Hattam, who escaped along with two other passengers from the Toyota Hilux, which was the first vehicle hit and the only one directly targeted. Al-Hatam’s name was added to Yemen’s list of most-wanted militants in January 2013 and security forces had raided his house in 2012, but his only links were to attacks against the Yemeni military.
Human Rights Watch’s own investigations found no evidence of a US investigation into the attack. It also emerged that the strike was conducted by the US special forces group, Joint Special Operations Command. Other media and human rights organisations investigated this strike comprehensively and found several names of those killed. They also uncovered fragments of Hellfire missiles used by drones.
Reprieve, HRW and Al Jazeera America compiled extensive records of what happened during and after the strike from interviews with witnesses, survivors, relatives of victims and government officials.
The incident occured at 16:30:00 local time.
The victims were named as:
Family members (11)
Family members (11)
The victims were named as:
Geolocation notes
Reports of the incident mention the governorate of Al-Bayda (ٱلْبَيْضَاء), for which the generic coordinates are: 14.275760, 45.357215. Due to limited satellite imagery available to Airwars and conflicting location information, we were unable to verify the location further.
Summary
Sources (60) [ collapse]
Media
from sources (7) [ collapse]
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Ahmed Mohammed al Shafee’ holds a picture of his son, Aaref, who was killed in the strike. (PHOTO: Reprieve)
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A photograph provided to Repreive shows the bodies of several victims buried in Radaa following the strike. (PHOTO: Reprieve)
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A vehicle destroyed following an alleged US drone strike, Radaa, December 12th (via NBC)
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A protest in Yemen took place following a major civilian casualty event when a US drone struck a wedding party in Radaa, December 12th. The banner reads, "America Spills Blood" (via NBC)
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Yemeni's show a piece of shrapnel from the suspected US drone strike on Radaa, December 12th (via NBC)