Another Screwed Up Drone Strike Leaves 13 Dead in Yemen
Today in Yemen, 13 people were killed in what was reportedly an erroneous drone strike by the American government. According to Yemeni officials, a caravan was traveling in central Yemen on its way to a wedding when it was hit by missiles fired from a drone, leaving bodies burned and vehicles ablaze in the middle of the road.
Intelligence sources speaking to the AP attributed the incident to a drone that mistook the party for a convoy of al-Qaeda fighters, while another said that al-Qaeda fighters were believed to be traveling with the group. American officials have a demonstrated history of underreporting the true number of civilians killed by drones across the Middle East.
This past Monday, three people were killed by a drone in east Yemen, while in 2008, 63 people died in a drone strike that hit a wedding in Afghanistan. In May, CODEPINK's Medea Benjamin challenged President Obama's record of drone strikes during a national security speech.
We can at least say this much for Amazon's drone delivery program: it won't mistakenly murder a dozen civilians.