Turkey downs drone as Syria launches Aleppo offensive

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By Mariam Karouny and Orhan Coskun 9 hours ago

 

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A still photograph used in a video shows a downed drone in Deliosman Village, Turkey October 16, 2015. …

 

 

By Mariam Karouny and Orhan Coskun

BEIRUT/ANKARA (Reuters) - Turkey shot down a drone on Friday in an incident highlighting the dangers of multiple air combat operations over Syria, where government troops and their allies backed by Russian jets have launched an offensive against rebels near Aleppo.

The army offensive south of the city, backed by Hezbollah and Iranian fighters, further expands its 10-day-old counter-attack in western Syria against insurgents battling to overthrow President Bashar al-Assad.

The army campaign has been coordinated with Russian jets, which began air strikes in support of Assad on Sept. 30, and Syria's own air force.

A U.S.-led coalition of Western and Arab forces has been flying combat missions over Syria for more than a year, while Israeli jets have also struck targets in Syria during the four-year-old civil war.

That has left Syria's airspace crowded with warplanes from rival, or even hostile powers, pursuing competing military strategies, heightening the risk of aerial confrontation.

Turkey's military said its jets shot down an unidentified drone in Turkish air space near Syria on Friday.

A U.S. official said Washington believed it was of Russian origin, but the Russian defense ministry said all of its planes in Syria had safely returned to base and that all its drones were operating "as planned". NATO said Turkey was investigating where the drone came from.

The Turkish military said the aircraft it shot down had continued on its course despite three warnings, in line with Turkey's rules of engagement. Broadcaster NTV said it had come 3 km (2 miles) into Turkish air space.

Turkey has already complained of Russian warplanes violating its air apace along the border with Syria earlier this month.

The Russian Defense Ministry said later on Friday it had established direct contact with the Turkish military to avoid incidents with flights near the border, Interfax news agency reported.

Russia had set up a hotline between a base used by its air force in Syria and the Israeli air force command center to coordinate on Syria flights.

The ministry also said it had agreed the technical details for an agreement with the United States on flight safety over Syria and a final memorandum would be signed soon.

ALEPPO ASSAULT

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A giant portrait of a young child has been produced to try and raise awareness of civilian casualties in the Pakistan region. Pointing out the fallacy of the Military's alleged "Bug Splats" attitude

 

‘Not bug splats’: Artists use poster-child in Pakistan drone protest

Published time: April 07, 2014 13:29

Image from notabugsplat.com

A poster of a young child has appeared in north-west Pakistan to raise awareness of the numerous drone attacks the region suffered. Artists who created the image hope military commanders will think twice about shooting after seeing the portrait.
More than 200 children are believed to have died in the heavily-bombed Khyber Pukhtoonkhwa according to the website notabugsplat.com. ‘Bug splat’ is the name given by the military to a person who has been killed by a drone. Viewing the body through a grainy computer image gives the impression that an insect has been crushed.
Now a giant portrait of a young child has been produced to try and raise awareness of civilian casualties in the region. The hope is now the drone operator will see a child’s face on his or her computer screen, rather than just a small white dot and may think twice before attacking indiscriminately.
The child featured in the poster is nameless, but according to the Foundation for Fundamental Rights, who helped to launch the project in collaboration with a number of artists, both parents were lost to a drone attack.
Drone raids in Pakistan started in 2004 under George W. Bush’s administration as part of the US War on Terror. The vast majority of strikes have focused on the Federally Administered Tribal Area’s and the Khyber Pukhtoonkhwa area due to their proximity to Afghanistan, which the country invaded following the September 11 terrorist attacks.

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Alberto Gonzales Attempts To Justify The Targeted Assassination Of American Citizens With NO Trial

MOXNEWSd0tC0M

Published on Feb 11, 2014

February 11, 2014 BBC News http://MOXNews.com


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Another U.S. citizen a potential drone target

By Tom Cohen and Tom Watkins, CNN

updated 6:21 PM EST, Tue February 11, 2014

(CNN) -- U.S. counterterrorism officials are closely watching an al Qaeda fighter in Pakistan who could become the next American to be targeted for killing by a drone strike, CNN has learned.

The person has been the subject of debate among military commanders and intelligence officials for several weeks as they decide what to recommend. President Barack Obama would make a final decision.

CNN has also learned key members of Congress have been aware of the internal debate.

The officials spoke to CNN's Barbara Starr on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the situation.

U.S. citizen may be target of drone

The current discussions involve both military commanders in the special forces community and intelligence officials.

A key point being discussed is whether it is better to maintain surveillance to see what added intelligence can be gained about any threats to the United States, and whether additional monitoring might lead to other operatives or al Qaeda elements to target.

Under the Obama administration's policy for targeting Americans, a person would have to pose an imminent threat to the United States and there would be no reasonable prospect of capture.

A U.S. official said drone targeting inside Pakistan is very sensitive because of the fragile state of the Pakistani government, which is under pressure to ban such strikes.

As a potential strike is weighed, some officials contend that good relations with the Islamabad government is a priority so the United States can maintain some type of long-term surveillance operation of potential al Qaeda targets there.

If all U.S. troops leave neighboring Afghanistan at the end of 2014, the concern is it may be harder to maintain high priority efforts such as conducting further drone operations over Pakistan and to also monitor Pakistan's nuclear programs.

As the United States considers a strike in Pakistan, there are also recent indications that al Qaeda in Pakistan and its affiliate in Somalia, Al-Shabaab, have stepped up their links, a second official told CNN.

Jehad Serwan Mostafa, an American citizen, is currently with Al-Shabaab. He is the highest-ranking American in the group, believed to be in a remote part of southern Somalia.

The Justice Department currently has a $5 million reward on his head.

CNN terrorism analyst Paul Cruikshank said there are indications Mostafa has contacts with senior al Qaeda leadership in Pakistan.

The United States failed to kill Al Shabaab leader Ahmed Abdi Godane in a drone strike in southern Somalia just a few weeks ago.

And last October, Navy SEALs failed to capture a third key leader, a man named Ikrimah. They assaulted a compound he was said to be at in southern Somalia but withdrew under heavy fire.

Although Ikrimah and Godane were said to be involved in the deadly attack last year on a shopping mall in Kenya, U.S. officials have told CNN that one reason Ikrimah was targeted was there was critical intelligence he had been communicating with operatives of al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula.

That Yemen based al Qaeda group is considered the most dangerous of its affiliates to U.S. security.

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An Afghan fact-finding mission has found that a recent US airstrike has killed at least 13 civilians in the country’s northeastern province of Parwan.

US airstrike killed 13 Afghan civilians in Parwan: Official

Fri Jan 17, 2014 1:50PM GMT

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A member of a fact-finding mission said on Friday that 13 civilians, most of them women and children, were killed in the US airstrike in Parwan Province on Wednesday. Initial reports had put the death toll at 8.
In a press conference in Kabul, the Afghan official said most of the victims were women and children.
The fact-finding mission began work after President Hamid Karzai ordered an investigation into the deadly attack.
A large number of civilians have been killed or injured at the hands of US-led foreign forces -- most of them in nighttime raids and airstrikes. The casualty rate has risen over the past few months, even though the Afghan government had asked foreign forces to make every effort to avoid killing civilians.
An escalation in the US-led strikes on Afghanistan’s civilian areas has angered both the public and the government.
Afghans have held numerous protest rallies countrywide to condemn such attacks.
Afghan government officials -- including President Karzai himself -- have also frequently condemned the killings of civilians by foreign forces.
The latest development comes as the US and Afghanistan are still at loggerheads over a bilateral security deal. Washington has been mounting pressure on Kabul to sign the deal that would allow several thousands of US troops to stay in Afghanistan beyond 2014.
Afghan political figures have heaped scorn on the US-led forces for committing unforgivable crimes against Afghan women and children since invading the country in 2001.
JR/AB/SS

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Despite the mass civilian death in Yemen, confirmed in numerous media reports, the U.S. government has so far refused to disclose information on the legality, targets, and victims of these strikes. UN demands answers

Published on Thursday, December 26, 2013 by Common Dreams

UN Officials: We Demand Answers for US Wedding Massacres in Yemen

Special Rapporteur Juan Méndez: 'A deadly attack on illegitimate targets amounts to cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment'

- Sarah Lazare, staff writer

Children gather near car destroyed in 2012 by a U.S. drone air strike in Azan, in the southeastern Yemeni province of Shabwa. (Photo: Reuters / Khaled Abdullah / Files)A suspected U.S. drone strike that killed 16 civilians attending a wedding in Yemen violates humanitarian law and must be accounted for, declared UN experts on Thursday.
“A deadly attack on illegitimate targets amounts to cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment if, as in this case, it results in serious physical or mental pain and suffering for the innocent victims,” said Special Rapporteur on Torture Juan Méndez, according to a UN statement.
“If armed drones are to be used, States must adhere to international humanitarian law, and should disclose the legal basis for their operational responsibility and criteria for targeting,” said Christof Heyns, UN Special Rapporteur on extrajudicial, summary or arbitrary executions. “Yemen cannot consent to violations of the right to life of people in its territory."
Local security officials report that 16 civilians were killed and over 10 injured when drone missiles struck two wedding processions on December 12.
Despite this mass civilian death, confirmed in numerous media reports, the U.S. government has so far refused to disclose information on the legality, targets, and victims of these strikes.
The Obama administration has been famously secretive about the covert drone wars of the United States while claiming that their civilian death count is low, despite reports from Bureau of Investigative Journalism researchers who have documented high numbers of civilian deaths in Pakistan and Yemen. 
As Tom Engelhardt recently pointed out, while much media reported that the wedding was an "unlikely target" that was struck mistakenly, there is in fact nothing unlikely or unique about this wedding tragedy.
According to "the count of TomDispatch, this is at least the eighth wedding party reported wiped out, totally or in part, since the Afghan War began and it extends the extermination of wedding celebrants from the air to a third country — six destroyed in Afghanistan, one in Iraq, and now the first in Yemen," writes Engelhardt. "And in all those years, reporters covering these “incidents” never seem to notice that similar events had occurred previously."
He adds, "The only thing that made the Yemeni incident unique was the drone. The previous strikes were reportedly by piloted aircraft."

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Air strike kills 15 civilians in Yemen by mistake: officials ...

A Predator drone in US Air Force base in 2011's summer.

Author US Air Force    http://www.af.mil/shared/media/photodb/photos/081131-F-7734Q-001.jpg

Image Source Wikimedia. Org

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U.S. Drone Strike Hits Convoy Headed To Wedding Party In Yemen, Killing At Least 13, Officials Say

Posted: 12/12/2013 1:47 pm EST  |  Updated: 12/13/2013 5:33 pm EST

The Associated Press reports Yemeni officials have said a U.S. drone strike hit a convoy headed to a wedding party:

BREAKING: Yemeni officials say U.S. drone strike hits convoy heading to wedding party, killing 13 people.
— The Associated Press (@AP) December 12, 2013

According to the report, at least 13 people were killed in the targeted strike.
Reuters quotes Yemeni security officials as saying the wedding party was targeted after it "was mistaken for an al-Qaeda convoy." Additionally, the news outlet cites 15 deaths, with another five people injured in the attack.
"An air strike missed its target and hit a wedding car convoy, ten people were killed immediately and another five who were injured died after being admitted to the hospital," one security official said.
Al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula, or AQAP, is believed to be among the most active wings of the terrorist organization. In response to the militant group's increased activity, the U.S. has ramped up its use of drone strikes in Yemen since 2011.
More from the Associated Press:
SANAA, Yemen (AP) — Missiles fired by a U.S. drone slammed into a convoy of vehicles traveling to a wedding party in central Yemen on Thursday, killing at least 13 people, Yemeni security officials said. The officials said the attack took place in the city of Radda, the capital of Bayda province, and left charred bodies and burnt out cars on the road. The city, a stronghold of al-Qaida militants, witnessed deadly clashes early last year between armed tribesmen backed by the military and al-Qaida gunmen in an attempt to drive them out of the city.
There were no immediate details on who was killed in the strike, and there were conflicting reports about whether there were militants traveling with the wedding convoy.
A military official said initial information indicated the drone mistook the wedding party for an al-Qaida convoy. He said tribesmen known to the villagers were among the dead.
One of the three security officials, however, said al-Qaida militants were suspected to have been traveling with the wedding convoy.
While the U.S. acknowledges its drone program in Yemen, it does not usually talk about individual strikes.
If further investigations determine that the victims were all civilians, the attack could fuel an outburst of anger against the United States and the government in Sanaa among a Yemeni public already opposed to the U.S. drone strikes.

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Air strike kills 15 civilians in Yemen by mistake: officials

SANAA Thu Dec 12, 2013 1:34pm EST

(Reuters) - Fifteen people on their way to a wedding in Yemen were killed in an air strike after their party was mistaken for an al Qaeda convoy, local security officials said on Thursday.
The officials did not identify the plane in the strike in central al-Bayda province, but tribal and local media sources said that it was a drone.
"An air strike missed its target and hit a wedding car convoy, ten people were killed immediately and another five who were injured died after being admitted to the hospital," one security official said.
Five more people were injured, the officials said.
The United States has stepped up drone strikes as part of a campaign against Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP), regarded by Washington as the most active wing of the militant network.

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Air strike in Yemen kills 15 wedding guests mistaken for al-Qaida – officials

Security officials report wedding convoy in al-Bayda province hit by strike from what tribal and local sources say was US drone

^Beta

• Reuters in Sana'a and Spencer Ackerman in Washington
• 
  
• theguardian.com, Thursday 12 December 2013 14.32 EST

Officials report 15 wedding guests in the Yemen province of al-Bayda were hit by an air strike, believed to be a US drone. Photograph: Malcolm Harris / Alamy/Alamy

Fifteen people on their way to a wedding in Yemen were killed in an air strike after their party was mistaken for an al-Qaida convoy, local security officials said on Thursday.
The officials did not identify the plane in the strike in central al-Bayda province, but tribal and local media sources said that it was a drone.
"An air strike missed its target and hit a wedding car convoy, 10 people were killed immediately and another five who were injured died after being admitted to the hospital," one security official said.
Five more people were injured, the officials said.
The United States has stepped up drone strikes as part of a campaign against al-Qaida in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP), regarded by Washington as the most active wing of the militant network.
Yemen, AQAP's main stronghold, is among a handful of countries where the United States acknowledges using drones, although it does not comment on the practice.
Human Rights Watch said in a detailed report in August that US missile strikes, including armed drone attacks, have killed dozens of civilians in Yemen.

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Last Year President Obama Reportedly Told His Aides That He's 'Really Good At Killing People'

Michael Kelley Nov. 2, 2013, 10:44 PM

AP

This will not go over well for the 2009 Nobel Peace Prize winner.

According to the new book “Double Down,” in which journalists Mark Halperin and John Heilemann chronicle the 2012 presidential election, President Barack Obama told his aides that he’s “really good at killing people” while discussing drone strikes.
Peter Hamby of The Washington Post noted the moment in his review of the book.
The reported claim by the commander-in-chief is as indisputable as it is grim.
Obama oversaw the 2009 surge in Afghanistan, 145 Predator drone strikes in NATO’s 2011 Libya operations, the May 2011 raid that killed Osama bin Laden, and drone strikes that killed the Pakistani Taliban leader and a senior member of the Somali-based militant group al-Shabab this week.
His administration also expanded the drone war: There have been 326 drone strikes in Pakistan, 93 in Yemen, and several in Somalia under Obama — upwards of 4,000 people overall — compared to a total of 52 strikes under George Bush.
In 2011 two of those strikes killed American-born al-Qaeda propagandist Anwar al-Awlaki and his American-born, 16-year-old son within two weeks.

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