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Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region Forums5/15/12 Drone Strike killed more civilians than the OK tornado
One day, just one day out of 10 years of drone strikes killed more innocent Yemeni civilians than the Oklahoma tornado killed.
http://www.npr.org/2012/07/06/156367047/yemen-airstrikes-punish-militants-and-civilians
A May 15 airstrike targeting militants devastated this section of Jaar, in southern Yemen. Officials reported that two militants and eight civilians were killed in this particular strike. But residents told NPR that no militants were killed and 17 to 26 civilians died. This area was under the control of al-Qaida in the Arabian Peninsula and an allied group until last month.
At this particular site, witnesses say the strikes rocked the town in the morning, just as many residents of Jaar were out buying breakfast. Residents say they heard a plane, and a house on the main street was flattened. One man inside died instantly. Dozens of people rushed to the scene.
Residents say the plane circled back and came in low.
"We didn't think it would come back," says a witnesses who runs a nearby car repair shop. "Suddenly we see it come back ... and shoot again."
The witness says the second strike killed at least 12 people instantly. "They were cut ... in pieces," he says. A wall where the second strike hit is still covered with blood.
The witnesses claim the plane that did this was American. We ask them how they know it was American, and not part of the Yemeni Air Force.
The plane was gray, says one man. "It looked like an eagle. We don't have planes like that," he says.
Response to Bonobo (Original post)
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Bonobo
(29,257 posts)They are capable of it. It is up to the pilot.
But then again, why should anyone believe the locals just because they say they have no aircraft like that?
Furthermore, the US has repeatedly done the old "two strike" technique, so it fits the MO.
http://www.policymic.com/articles/21070/predator-drone-double-taps-highlight-possible-war-crimes-by-obama
Predator Drone 'Double-Taps' Highlight Possible War Crimes By Obama
NYU student Josh Begley has been tweeting every U.S. drone strike since President Bush's first bombing in Yemen back in 2002, and his Twitter feed highlights an incredibly disturbing tactic. The U.S. is employing a "double-tap" method in its use of drones, which means the bombing of a target multiple times in a very short period of time.
These "double-tap" attacks end up hitting "first responders" to the rubble and ashes that are left over after the initial strike, and Begley's tweets reveal that the U.S. has been intentionally targeting funerals and civilian rescuers.
While these tactics, when discussed at all (Obama's drone program is shrouded in an intense level of secrecy), are justified under the rubric of "national security," even the Department of Homeland Security and the FBI have classified "double-taps" as staples of terrorists, not the repertoire of supposed constitutional republics.
So while the "double-tap" method may please the likes of Hamas and the abortion clinic bomber Eric Rudolph, these attacks, even by the most broad definitions of international law, are blatant war crimes.