Life in Fear: Report Says 1 in 3 US Drone-Strike Deaths in Yemen Are Civilians, Including Children
- Life in Fear: Report Says 1 in 3 US Drone-Strike Deaths in Yemen Are Civilians, Including Children
by https://www.rt.com/
Bombings by the Saudi-led coalition may have devastated Yemen, but the country faces another deadly threat in the sky – US drones. A third of those killed by them in 2018 were civilians, including children, according to a report.
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“We live in fear. Drones don’t leave the sky,” said one farmer, describing the day that two of his relatives were killed in a US drone strike. His is one of several testimonies recorded in a new report by Associated Press documenting the rising civilian death toll caused by the US drone war against Al-Qaeda’s Yemeni franchise.
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While gathering an official toll of civilian deaths caused by US drone strikes is difficult – due to the inability to confirm identities or allegiances – estimates by AP show that a third of those killed so far in 2018, or some 30 people, were not members of the terrorist group. Some 215 civilians were killed by drones since the campaign started in 2002, according to the Bureau of Investigative Journalism.
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Some drone strikes kill several people in one family, as happened in January 2018 when a car full of civilians looking for a lost boy was struck by a US drone. Seven were killed in the strike, including five of the boy’s family.
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In an interview with RT, Saleh Farag, the boy’s uncle, displayed pictures of the charred vehicle, and said: “It was a drone missile that killed them.”
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Another incident documented by AP and confirmed by local human rights activists recounted how a 14-year-old shepherd and a passing construction worker were killed in a drone strike. The area where they were killed was several miles from where Al-Qaeda had previously attempted to seize a checkpoint.
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