LeakSourceNews
Published on Aug 17, 2013
In an exclusive interview with Press TV on Saturday, Ralph Schoenman, author and political commentator in Berkeley, said the US airstrikes are mostly targeting civilian areas and the victims have been mostly civilians.
"...These airstrikes are on civilians and on cars that are driven by people who are in no way connected to political activity. In fact, 849 people who have been killed have been simply civilians who have no connection other than they are hostile to the United States as is most of the population," he said.
The analyst said that the US so-called war on terror "is a war for expanding US and Israeli control of the region for provoking new wars" in the region.
Schoenman noted that Yemen sits across the strategically crucial Gulf of Aden and commands the Bab el Mandeb Strait, which controls access to the Red Sea.
"...The United States has long term plans to build three military bases in Yemen in order to strengthen America's military presence in the country," he said, adding: "...As the Yemen Times reported, 35 international companies are jockeying for access to 20 new oil extraction sites in the country. That is what this is really about with respect to Yemen."
The US has launched numerous drone attacks in Yemen killing many innocent civilians over the past few years.
Washington claims that its airstrikes target militants, but local sources say civilians have been the main victims of the airstrikes.
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Yemen official: US drones kill 12 in 3 airstrikes
SANAA:
The US has sharply escalated its drone war in Yemen, with military
officials in the Arab country reporting 34 suspected al-Qaida militants
killed in less than two weeks, including three strikes on Thursday alone
in which a dozen died.
The action against al-Qaida in the Arabian Peninsula, as the Yemen branch is known, comes amid a global terror alert issued by Washington. One Mideast official says the uptick is due to its leaders leaving themselves more vulnerable by moving from their normal hideouts toward areas where they could carry out attacks.
The action against al-Qaida in the Arabian Peninsula, as the Yemen branch is known, comes amid a global terror alert issued by Washington. One Mideast official says the uptick is due to its leaders leaving themselves more vulnerable by moving from their normal hideouts toward areas where they could carry out attacks.
The
US and Britain evacuated diplomatic staff from the capital of Sanaa
this week after learning of a threatened attack that prompted Washington
to close temporarily 19 diplomatic posts in the Middle East and Africa.
Thursday's first reported drone attack hit a car carrying suspected militants in the district of Wadi Ubaidah, about 175 kilometers (109 miles) east of Sanaa, and killed six, a security official said.
Badly burned bodies lay beside their vehicle, according to the official. Five of the dead were Yemenis, while the sixth was believed to be of another Arab nationality, he said.
The second drone attack killed three alleged militants in the al-Ayoon area of Hadramawt province in the south, the official said. The third, also in Hadramawt province, killed three more suspected militants in the al-Qutn area, he added.
All the airstrikes targeted cars, added the official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to talk to the media.
The drone strikes have become a near-daily routine since they began July 27. So far, they have been concentrated in remote, mountainous areas where al-Qaida's top five leaders are believed to have taken refuge.
But drones also have been seen and heard buzzing for hours over Sanaa, worrying residents who fear getting caught in the crossfire.
While the United States acknowledges its drone program in Yemen, it does not talk about individual strikes or release information on how many are carried out. The program is run by the Pentagon's Joint Special Operations Command and the CIA, with the military flying its drones out of Djibouti, and the CIA out of a base in Saudi Arabia.
Pentagon spokesman Army Lt. Col. Todd Breasseale declined to comment Thursday and would not confirm the existence of a military drone program in Yemen. The CIA also declined to comment.
Since July 27, drone attacks have killed 34 suspected militants, according to an Associated Press count based on information provided by Yemeni security officials.
Thursday's first reported drone attack hit a car carrying suspected militants in the district of Wadi Ubaidah, about 175 kilometers (109 miles) east of Sanaa, and killed six, a security official said.
Badly burned bodies lay beside their vehicle, according to the official. Five of the dead were Yemenis, while the sixth was believed to be of another Arab nationality, he said.
The second drone attack killed three alleged militants in the al-Ayoon area of Hadramawt province in the south, the official said. The third, also in Hadramawt province, killed three more suspected militants in the al-Qutn area, he added.
All the airstrikes targeted cars, added the official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to talk to the media.
The drone strikes have become a near-daily routine since they began July 27. So far, they have been concentrated in remote, mountainous areas where al-Qaida's top five leaders are believed to have taken refuge.
But drones also have been seen and heard buzzing for hours over Sanaa, worrying residents who fear getting caught in the crossfire.
While the United States acknowledges its drone program in Yemen, it does not talk about individual strikes or release information on how many are carried out. The program is run by the Pentagon's Joint Special Operations Command and the CIA, with the military flying its drones out of Djibouti, and the CIA out of a base in Saudi Arabia.
Pentagon spokesman Army Lt. Col. Todd Breasseale declined to comment Thursday and would not confirm the existence of a military drone program in Yemen. The CIA also declined to comment.
Since July 27, drone attacks have killed 34 suspected militants, according to an Associated Press count based on information provided by Yemeni security officials.
The
terror network's Yemeni offshoot bolstered its operations in Yemen more
than a decade after key Saudi operatives fled here following a major
crackdown in their homeland. The drone strikes and a US-backed offensive
that began in June 2012 have driven militants from towns and large
swaths of land they had seized a year earlier, during Yemen's political
turmoil amid the Arab Spring.
The sudden drone barrage could further upset a population already angered by bombings that have killed civilians, said Gregory Johnsen, the author of "The Last Refuge: Yemen, al-Qaida and America's War in Arabia."
"It's a really rapid increase when there was a long time where there were no drone strikes for weeks," Johnsen said in an interview with the AP. "This has a lot of people in Yemen on edge."
A US intelligence official and a Mideast diplomat have told the AP that the embassy closures were triggered by the interception of a secret message between al-Qaida chief Ayman al-Zawahri and Nasser al-Wahishi, the leader of the Yemen-based offshoot, about plans for a major attack.
Authorities in Yemen said they had discovered al-Qaida plot to target foreign embassies in Sanaa and international shipping in the Red Sea.
Yemeni authorities said this week that a group of al-Qaida militants have entered Sanaa and other cities to carry attacks. It issued list of 25 al-Qaida wanted militants. The Yemeni statement said security forces will pay $23,000 to anyone who comes forward with information that leads to the arrests of any of the wanted men.
The discovery of the al-Qaida plot prompted the Defense Ministry to step up security around the strategic Bab el-Mandeb waterway, which connects the Red Sea with the Gulf of Aden. Officials banning speedboats or fishing vessels from the area.
Details of the plot were reminiscent of the suicide attack on the USS Cole in 2000 in Aden harbor that killed 17 American sailors.
One local political analyst suggests the latest plots were floated by the group to show it is still a formidable force.
"Al-Qaida has suffered losses and it is trying to make an impression," said analyst Ali al-Sarari, who is close to the Yemeni government. "The mere talk about an upcoming attack gives the group a chance to restore its shattered image ... as a group capable of exporting terrorism."
Read More HereThe sudden drone barrage could further upset a population already angered by bombings that have killed civilians, said Gregory Johnsen, the author of "The Last Refuge: Yemen, al-Qaida and America's War in Arabia."
"It's a really rapid increase when there was a long time where there were no drone strikes for weeks," Johnsen said in an interview with the AP. "This has a lot of people in Yemen on edge."
A US intelligence official and a Mideast diplomat have told the AP that the embassy closures were triggered by the interception of a secret message between al-Qaida chief Ayman al-Zawahri and Nasser al-Wahishi, the leader of the Yemen-based offshoot, about plans for a major attack.
Authorities in Yemen said they had discovered al-Qaida plot to target foreign embassies in Sanaa and international shipping in the Red Sea.
Yemeni authorities said this week that a group of al-Qaida militants have entered Sanaa and other cities to carry attacks. It issued list of 25 al-Qaida wanted militants. The Yemeni statement said security forces will pay $23,000 to anyone who comes forward with information that leads to the arrests of any of the wanted men.
The discovery of the al-Qaida plot prompted the Defense Ministry to step up security around the strategic Bab el-Mandeb waterway, which connects the Red Sea with the Gulf of Aden. Officials banning speedboats or fishing vessels from the area.
Details of the plot were reminiscent of the suicide attack on the USS Cole in 2000 in Aden harbor that killed 17 American sailors.
One local political analyst suggests the latest plots were floated by the group to show it is still a formidable force.
"Al-Qaida has suffered losses and it is trying to make an impression," said analyst Ali al-Sarari, who is close to the Yemeni government. "The mere talk about an upcoming attack gives the group a chance to restore its shattered image ... as a group capable of exporting terrorism."
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Why the White House blessed the recent Yemen drone strikes
/
An
MQ-9 Reaper, armed with GBU-12 Paveway II laser guided munitions and
AGM-114 Hellfire missiles, flies over southern Afghanistan in an undated
photo.
The targets had already been identified, said senior defense department officials, but the strikes were caught in a national security bottleneck after a change in policy this spring “slowed everything down.” The bottleneck vanished and the strikes were suddenly carried out after the U.S. intercepted communications in late July in which two al Qaeda leaders said they wanted to do “something big.”
A senior administration official denied that there had been any shift in policy. “This threat has changed the conditions on the ground,” said the official. “It’s not a change in guidance.”
The recent lull in drone attacks in Yemen, which lasted from June 9 to July 27, was the third pause this year. The pauses have come as the White House personnel responsible for drone strikes have changed and as the administration tweaks its criteria for when the missiles can be fired.
The first significant interruption began in late January and lasted through mid-April. The slowdown coincided with a change in jobs for John Brennan, who had overseen the strikes for the White House as Homeland Security Advisor but left to become director of the CIA in March.
Obama announced that he had chosen Lisa Monaco to replace Brennan as his top counterterror official on January 25, and she officially assumed the role of Homeland Security Advisor on March 8. The U.S. launched four strikes on Yemen between January 19 and January 23, just before Obama’s announcement about Monaco, but didn’t launch another until April 17.
“With Brennan going over to CIA and Monaco replacing him, it took time,” said a senior counterterrorism official. “This was a while coming. JSOC (the Pentagon’s Joint Special Operations Command) was pushing for more strikes and more operations but the White House slowed everything down.”
After three drone strikes on April 17 and 21, a second lull lasted until two airstrikes on May 18 and 20. On May 23, President Obama gave a speech at the National Defense University in which he announced plans to limit the use of drones against al Qaeda and related groups outside of “the Afghan war theater.”
In tandem with the drone speech, the President issued new internal guidance to officials that tightened controls on what targets could be hit and who could make the decision to launch a drone.
What followed, sources said, was more frustration from Defense Department officials, and a third, seven-week-long interruption in drone strikes that led to a backlog of identified militant targets in Yemen.
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