US air raids kill 63 civilians in Yemen

[IndianaGreen]

According to tonight's ABC News, the orders to expand the war into Yemen came from President Obama. Escalation only leads to more escalations!

As in prior US bombings, a lot of civilians get killed.

US air raids kill 63 civilians in Yemen

Fri, 18 Dec 2009 14:55:55 GMT

Yemen's Houthi fighters say scores of civilians, including many children, have been killed in US air-raids in the southeast of the war-stricken Arab country.

The Shia fighters on Friday reported the deaths of 63 people, including some 28 children, in the southeastern province of Abyan.

Almost 90 people were also injured in the attacks by US warplanes in the village of Bakazam, they added.

Yemen's southern provinces have recently been the scene of US airstrikes which Washington claims to be aimed at uprooting an al-Qaeda cell operative in the Persian Gulf state.

But the residents of the area dismiss the claims that al-Qaeda members are being targeted in the US attacks, while a Yemeni lawmaker has also called for an investigation into the raids.

The US operation in southern Yemen comes on top of a joint Saudi-Yemeni military campaign in the country's war-weary north where Sana'a and Riyadh forces are engaged in a fierce fighting against the Houthi fighters.

http://www.presstv.ir/detail.aspx?id=114056§ionid=351020206

Rebels in Northwest Yemen are accusing the United States of killing at least 120 people and wounding 44 in air strikes. Yemen and Saudi Arabia have been conducting an offensive against the Shia

VIDEO:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aWuY6UOzEH4

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E85mb3KM2uk&feature=video_response

On edit, Al-Jazeera's link:

http://www.aljazeera.com/news/articles/34/US-air-raids-kill-63-civilians-in-SE-Yemen.html

[Arctic Dave]

1. Remember when saddam was bombing civilians and we were so outraged by it.

My how things change.

I'm sure our reasons for bombing civilians are pretty close to why saddam did it. I guess our military isn't much better then his was.

[IndianaGreen]

2. We are doing Saudi Arabia's dirty deed in Yemen

The Wahhabi Saudis are fighting the Shia of Yemen.

[Arctic Dave]

14. How do we define a terrorist, if they sell us their oil we like them.

If not, they are a terrorist.

Funny how this works since the wahhabist are the ones who funded 9/11.

[IndianaGreen]

15. We can always pull Emmanuel Goldstein out of the hat to scare people

In this case, the US is claiming it was killing Al-Qaeda. A bald faced lie! Al-Qaeda is Wahhabi and it hates the Shia.

[BeyondGeography]

3. Says Iranian television?

[IndianaGreen]

4. Al-Jazeera has also reported this

Have you heard of what Saudi Arabia is doing to the Shia of Yemen?

[CBGLuthier]

5. Yemen? WTF?

America has become a pestilence upon the world.

When will the world have enough of our shit and stop us?

[amborin]

23. LOTs of Al Queda in Yemen! also Frankfurt, Somalia, etc.....winning hearts & minds!

[lapfog_1]

6. Under what authority would Obama attack Yemen?

I would be very careful with this story, I understand that there would be great motive for the Yemen rebels to accuse the US of killing civilians. The Saudis are tied very heavily to the US defense industry, they fly the same planes we fly. It would be easy to mistake Saudi air raids for US air raids.

[IndianaGreen]

7. ABC News reported it was a US raid and that Obama gave direct orders for it

[BeyondGeography]

8. And then you grabbed this source which parrots what the Yemeni oppostion says

http://www.nytimes.com/reuters/2009/12/18/world/international-us-yemen-raids-casualties.html

[IndianaGreen]

9. Obama decided to fight Saudi Arabia's dirty little war in Yemen

The Houthis, who accuse the Sunni-dominated Sana'a government of discrimination and repression against Yemen's Shia minority, were the target of the army's off and on attacks before the central government launched an all-out fighting against them in early August.

Saudi Arabia joined the operation later following alleged clashes between its border guards and the Houthis, carrying out regular airstrikes and ground incursions against the fighters.

On Friday, the Houthis said over 160 missiles hit regions along the border with the neighboring kingdom, which they accuse of pounding civilians in villages within the Yemeni territory.

The Saudis have conducted more than 70 air raids in less than 24 hours.

http://www.aljazeera.com/news/articles/34/US-air-raids-kill-63-civilians-in-SE-Yemen.html

[ClarkUSA]

37. Thanks for the pro-Shia spin, but in real life, folks know Yemen is becoming infested w/Al-Qaeda.

CBS News: "Al Qaeda's Yemen Connection May Be Dead":
http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2009/12/12/world/main5971263.shtml

Telegraph UK: US special forces train Yemen army as Arab state becomes al-Qaeda 'reserve base':
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/middleeast/yemen/6803120/US-special-forces-train-Yemen-army-as-Arab-state-becomes-al-Qaeda-reserve-base.html

BBC News: Yemen 'foils al-Qaeda plot' killing 34:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/8417773.stm

WSJ: Al-Qaeda in Yemen Worries the West:
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB125417307132347371.html

[IndianaGreen]

40. Al-Qaeda is Wahhabi, as is Saudi Arabia, and the Yemeni government

Wahhabis see the Shia as heretics, which is why the Wahhabi Al-Qaeda attacked the Shia of Iraq.

[ClarkUSA]

42. You're ignoring what I said. And the links that prove the strategic reasons behind this attack.

I'm not cherrypicking my articles. Google has pages supporting the link behind Yemen and Al-Qaeda establishing a stronghold there.

[IndianaGreen]

44. We killed Shia civilians--they are NOT Al-Qaeda

and we have down this route before with Bush's Pentagon.

[ClarkUSA]

48. How would you know? aljazeera.com is hardly an unbiased news source.

See the FACTS:
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=389&topic_id=7267357&mesg_id=7267357

Your bringing up "Bush's Pentagon" reveals you haven't a clue as to what's really going on in the reality-based world
where President Obama is the CIC who just smacked down Gen. McChrystal/Hillary's 80K troop surge/10 year war plan.

[lapfog_1]

10. Wouldn't be the first time the MSM got a story wrong.

Especially in these days of vastly reduced investigative reporting.

If they are relying on Iranian TV for this or even Al Jezeera, they may have been taken for a ride.

Has the White House issued any comment?

[rug]

12. "Over time, as codes of law sought to control violence within groups, so did philosophers, clerics,

and statesmen seek to regulate the destructive power of war. The concept of a “just war” emerged, suggesting that war is justified only when it meets certain preconditions: if it is waged as a last resort or in self-defense; if the forced used is proportional, and if, whenever possible, civilians are spared from violence."

I suppose it wasn't possible this time.

[El Supremo]

11. Happy Islamic New Year!

And Merry Christmas from the Prince of Peace.

This has got to stop!

[IndianaGreen]

13. From a Pashtun civil war in Afghanistan to a Sunni-Shia civil war in Yemen

A new escalation just in time for the holidays!

[Name removed]

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[IndianaGreen]

17. The Yemeni government is Wahhabi and is backed by Saudi Arabia

The rebels are Shia, which the Wahhabi see as heretics. Al-Qaeda is Wahhabi.

[Name removed]

18. Deleted message

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[Name removed]

19. Deleted message

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[ShortnFiery]

20. Your Orwell doesn't work here. We're breaking International Law ... creating MORE

terrorists in Yemen. The MIC and ruling elite would love nothing more than to destabilize the entire ME. Profits GALORE from OIL and WAR! :nuke:

[Name removed]

21. Deleted message

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[ShortnFiery]

25. You're the one spreading propaganda ... with the crones in the M$M.

:crazy:

[ProSense]

22. Neither does the RW mentality (at least it shouldn't). CNN:

Source: Yemen airstrike kills al Qaeda deputy

[ShortnFiery]

26. Yes, the Corporate News Network would NEVER lie to us, would they?

:eyes:

[ProSense]

30. Yeah, but Charlie Gibson is really credible? n/t

[harkadog]

34. More credible than you, clearly.

[IndianaGreen]

28. CNN helped sell the war in Iraq, while Al-Jazeera told the truth

I posted Al-Jazeera's report on civilian casualties elsewhere on this thread.

[ShortnFiery]

31. And some brave Al-Jazeera journalists DIED telling the truth to power.

But our USA "authorities" called these bombings MISTAKES. Do you believe they were accidents?

[Ozymanithrax]

35. Mistake and an accident are two different things.

It was no accident U.S. fighter bombers bombed a village, but it could well have been a serious mistake to do so. The PUBLIC LAW 107–40—SEPT. 18, 2001 needs to be revoked. It is more than a bit too broad.

[IndianaGreen]

39. We are bombing whatever the Saudi-backed Yemeni government tells us to bomb

We saw this in Afghanistan, when US was bombing villagers thinking it was attacking terrorists, when in fact it was unknownly settling old tribal scores.

[Ozymanithrax]

41. Military Inteligence isn't....

Learned that in Nam.

[IndianaGreen]

24. Here is Al-Jazeera's report on the civilian casualties

'Many more killed'

Residents of Abyan said that there was no al-Qaeda training camp in the area and that the raids had destroyed several homes.

Abbas al-Assal, a local human rights activist who was at the scene, said 64 people were killed, including 23 children and 17 women.

"The government wants to show the world that it is serious in pursuing al-Qaeda elements and that the south of Yemen is a refuge for al-Qaeda. That is not true at all," al-Assal told the Associated Press by telephone.

Ali Mohammed Mansour, gave similar casualty figures, and said that he helped bury the dead in a mass grave.

<snip>

A provincial security official said that "grave mistakes occurred in the operation due to failures of information, which led to a large number of civilian deaths".

Mansour, the resident, rejected claims that targeted site was a training camp, and said that community was only 100 metres away from a main road and two kilometres from an army base.

“If (al-Kazemi) was wanted, why didn't the authorities come and arrest him all this time?” he said.

http://english.aljazeera.net/news/middleeast/2009/12/2009121863810908568.html

[ShortnFiery]

29. And HOW are these HORRIFIC ACTIONS keeping Americans, both at home and abroad, SAFER?!?

:(

[mike_c]

27. sounds like Obama is trying to catch up with Clinton's death toll....

Although, admittedly, that's a tough job.

[pissedoff01]

32. Obama placed a call after the strikes to "congratulate" the President of Yemen, Ali Abdallah Salih

http://abcnews.go.com/Blotter/cruise-missiles-strike-yemen/story?id=9375236

[IndianaGreen]

33. And I will repeat Al-Qaeda hates the Shia, and these were Shia civilians

Saudi Arabia has been attacking Shia positions in Yemen for well over a month now. At the behest of our oil supplier, Obama decided to do some Shia killing to keep the Saudis happy.

[ClarkUSA]

55. How would you know? aljazeera.com is hardly an unbiased news source.

It isn't the Arabic language website; it's a bogus RW website.

[ProSense]

36. Oh, and by the way, you linked to a bogus RW site. "aljazeera.com" is not Aljazeera

Here is the Aljazeera report: 'Dozens killed' in Yemen raids

[IndianaGreen]

38. Post 24 has the Al-Jazeera report on the casualties

[ProSense]

47. Here,

feel free to ignore this.

[ClarkUSA]

Pro-Shia spin aside, "Al-Qaeda in Yemen Worries the West" (link to WSJ article -->)

WSJ: Al-Qaeda in Yemen Worries the West:
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB125417307132347371.html

[ClarkUSA]

43. Yemen is infested w/ Al-Qaeda: Yemen 'foils al-Qaeda plot' killing 34 (link to BBC News article -->)

BBC News: Yemen 'foils al-Qaeda plot' killing 34:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/8417773.stm

[ClarkUSA]

45. Yemen is allowing the U.S. to "train Yemen army" to fight Al-Qaeda (Telegraph UK news link --->)

Telegraph UK: US special forces train Yemen army as Arab state becomes al-Qaeda 'reserve base':
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/middleeast/yemen/6803120/US-special-forces-train-Yemen-army-as-Arab-state-becomes-al-Qaeda-reserve-base.html

[IndianaGreen]

46. Next you will tell us that there is Al-Qaeda in Venezuela

We are fighting Saudi Arabia's dirty little war in Yemen and using the Al-Qaeda bogeyman as a pretext.

[ClarkUSA]

49. No, I wasn't going to because that's a fiction you made up to minimize my credible news sources.

<<We are fighting Saudi Arabia's dirty little war in Yemen and using the Al-Qaeda bogeyman as a pretext.>>

Thanks for the aljazeera.com pro-Shia spin.

Because you haven't got facts from credible news sources to back your bullshit up.

[IndianaGreen]

50. HRW: Saudi Arabia/Yemen: Protect Civilians in Conflict with Rebels

Here is some background on the human tragedy in Yemen:

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
December 4, 2009
1:46 PM

Saudi Arabia/Yemen: Protect Civilians in Conflict with Rebels

Aerial Bombings Reportedly Cause Civilian Casualties, Displacement

NEW YORK - December 4 - Saudi Arabia, Yemen, and Huthi rebel forces involved in the armed conflict in northern Yemen should take all necessary measures to spare civilians from the fighting and ensure that they receive humanitarian assistance, Human Rights Watch said today.

Since early November 2009, Saudi warplanes have bombed Yemeni villages in areas controlled by Huthi rebels. Yemeni armed forces and Huthi rebels have been involved in renewed fighting since August, which has resulted in civilian casualties and displaced thousands of people.

"The escalating conflict in northern Yemen risks escalating civilian casualties," said James Ross, legal and policy director at Human Rights Watch. "All sides must avoid harming civilians and ensure that aid reaches them quickly."

On November 3, a cross-border raid by Huthi rebels, who have been fighting the Yemeni government intermittently since 2004, set off Saudi aerial bombing raids on November 5 that continue to the present. The Saudi deputy defense minister, Prince Khalid bin Sultan, said on November 10 that Saudi forces were seeking to establish a 10-kilometer corridor inside Yemeni territory free of Huthi rebel positions.

Human Rights Watch expressed concern that the parties to the conflict take all feasible precautions to protect the civilian population from attack as is required by the laws of war. A recently displaced person told London's Guardian newspaper that Saudi loudspeakers warned residents to evacuate their homes but may have conducted attacks without regard to whether civilians remained in the village.

"We heard the sounds of planes and heavy shelling," the person was quoted as saying. "The Saudis were bombarding the Huthi positions and our village was hit."

http://www.commondreams.org/newswire/2009/12/04-10

This is another civil war!

[ClarkUSA]

51. Why are you linking to a RW website? Al Jazeera English (AJE) is at english.aljazeera.net/

Al Jazeera English - AJE

Dec 18, 2009 ... English version of the Arabic-language news network. Breaking news and features plus background material
including profiles and global reactions.

http://www.google.com/search?client=safari&rls=en&q=aljazeera.net&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8

Here's what they said:

'Dozens killed' in Yemen raids

At least 34 people have been killed in raids on suspected al-Qaeda hide-outs and training sites in Yemen, security officials have said.

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=389&topic_id=7267357&mesg_id=7267357

You're posting unsubstantiated bullshit from a bogus RW website with the URL http://www.aljazeera.com

[question everything]

52. According to the same report they were Al Queda people

You may bleed your heart for them - but I am glad.

[cherokeeprogressive]

53. So what? Obama said during the campaign that he'd... oh wait...

...that was Afghanistan. Oh well, President Obama is MUCH smarter than the rest of us. He knows things we don't.

[QC]

54. How very, very hopeful and changealicious! n/t