pakatan HarApan: SERANGAN Drone membunuh 15 Orang‘Yang menghadiri majlis PERKAHWINAN’ di Yaman . . .

Ct1Mahani | SitiWanMahani - 15 orang yang telah menghadiri ke perkahwinan di Yaman terbunuh dalam serangan udara. Media tempatan melaporkan bahawa serangan Drone telah bertanggungjawab, dan orang awam yang menghadiri telah dilanda dan bukannya konvoi Al-Qaeda.

“Satu serangan udara terlepas sasaran dan melanda sebuah konvoi kereta perkahwinan, 10 orang terbunuh serta-merta dan 5 lagi yang cedera, mati selepas dimasukkan ke hospital,” kata seorang pegawai keselamatan Yaman kepada Reuters.

5 lagi orang cedera dalam serangan itu yang berlaku di Radda, tengah wilayah al-Bayda pada hari Khamis, tambah sumber itu.

Kumpulan itu dalam perjalanan ke kampung di Qaifa, laman perkahwinan, apabila ia dilanda. Serangan meningalkan Mayat bertaburan di jalan raya dan kenderaan terbakar, para pegawai mengatakan AP.

Walaupun pegawai-pegawai tidak akan mengenal pasti punca serangan udara, sumber media tempatan dan puak yang disebabkan kematian kepada serangan Drone.

Tiada komen untuk diikuti yang Drone mungkin telah dihantar utk serangan. Walau bagai-manapun, Amerika Syarikat yang terkenal kerana bantuan yang memerangi keganasan kepada negara yang pada masa-masa termasuk serbuan UAV.

Washington baru-baru ini telah meningkat keamatan serangan Drone di Yaman, walaupun kritikan meluas mencetuskan oleh fakta bahawa serangan adalah jauh daripada menjadi ‘surgical’.

Pada bulan Oktober, Human Rights Watch mengeluarkan satu laporan memberatkan pada serangan Drone Amerika Syarikat di Yaman. Ia diterangkan 6 daripada jumlah 80 yang disasarkan membunuh operasi di negara ini. Dalam 6 serangan 82 orang yang terbunuh, 57 daripada mereka - atau praktikal 70 % peratus - adalah orang awam.

Drone strike kills 15 'wedding party goers' in Yemen

Fifteen people who had been heading to a wedding in Yemen have been killed in an air strike. Local media reported that a drone attack had been responsible, and the party-goers had been hit instead of an Al-Qaeda convoy.

“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,” a Yemeni security official told Reuters.

Five more people were injured in the attack which took place in Radda, central al-Bayda province on Thursday, the source added.

The group had been en route to the the village of Qaifa, the site of the wedding, when it was hit. The assault left charred bodies strewn in the road and vehicles on fire, officials told AP.

While officials would not identify the source of the air strike, local and tribal media sources attributed the deaths to a drone attack.

No comment followed as to whose drone may have delivered the strike. However, the US is known for its counter-terrorism assistance to the country which at times includes UAV raids.

Washington has recently increased the intensity of its drone strikes in Yemen, despite widespread criticism sparked by the fact that strikes are far from being ‘surgical’.

In October, Human Rights Watch released a damning report on US drone strikes in Yemen. It described six of the total of some 80 targeted killing operations in the country. In those six attacks 82 people were killed, 57 of whom – or practically 70 percent – were civilians.

“Presiden Obama mengatakan Amerika Syarikat sedang melakukan yang terbaik untuk melindungi orang awam daripada bahaya dalam serangan ini. Namun dalam 6 kes yang kita periksa, sekurang-kurangnya 2 adalah pelanggaran yang jelas tentang undang-undang peperangan,” HRW Penyelidik Kanan Letta Tayler komen pada masa itu.

Dalam bulan yang sama, PBB Pelapor Khas mengenai Hak Asasi Manusia dan Counter-terrorism, Ben Emmerson, berkata serangan Drone Amerika Syarikat telah membunuh 2,200 di Pakistan dalam dekad yang lalu, 400 daripada mereka adalah orang awam dan satu lagi 200 ‘kemungkinan yang tidak bersenjata. Pakistan adalah negara lain, di mana penduduk tempatan menentang sekeras-kerasnya serangan Drone Amerika.

“Terdapat banyak, banyak contoh orang awam - wanita, kanak-kanak, orang tua - dibunuh oleh pesawat ini,” kata aktivis anti-Drone Leah Bolger memberitahu RT dalam satu wawancara.

Dan walaupun pesawat menyerang orang-orang yang CIA berhasrat untuk menyerang, ini adalah di luar proses kehakiman, dan ini adalah serangan haram. Mereka melanggar kedaulatan Yemen, Pakistan, Afghanistan. Walaupun orang yang diserang adalah ahli bona fide Al-Qaeda, sehingga mereka boleh terbukti telah melakukan sesuatu yang menyalahi undang-undang, ini adalah pembunuhan luar undang-undang.”

“President Obama says the US is doing its utmost to protect civilians from harm in these strikes. Yet in the six cases we examined, at least two were a clear violation of the laws of war,” HRW Senior Researcher Letta Tayler commented at the time.

In the same month, UN Special Rapporteur on Human Rights and Counterterrorism, Ben Emmerson, said that US drone strikes had killed 2,200 in Pakistan in the past decade, 400 of whom were civilians and another 200 ‘probable non-combatants’. Pakistan is another country, where the local population vehemently opposes American drone strikes.

"There are many, many examples of civilians - women, children, older people - being killed by these drones," anti-drone activist Leah Bolger told RT in an interview.

And even if the drones attack the people that the CIA intends to attack, this is outside the judicial process, and these are illegal attacks. They violate the sovereignty of Yemen, of Pakistan, Afghanistan. Even if the person attacked is a bona fide member of Al-Qaeda, until they can be proven to have done something that is against the law, these are extrajudicial assassinations."

Orang berkumpul berhampiran bangkai sebuah kereta yang dimusnahkan oleh Drone Amerika Syarikat serangan udara yang disasarkan disyaki militan al-Qaeda pada bulan Ogos 2012, di daerah al-Qatn wilayah Yaman tenggara Hadhramout 5 Februari 2013 (Reuters/Khaled Abdullah - think IN pictures @1WORLDCommunity)

Selain kadar mangsa awam yang tinggi, pengkritik berkata serangan Drone dilakukan melanggar undang-undang antarabangsa, dan mempersoalkan sama ada pentadbiran Obama mempunyai kuasa untuk membenarkan pembunuhan tanpa waran mahkamah.

Satu amalan tertentu dikecam oleh aktivis hak asasi manusia ialah penggunaan apa yang dipanggil ‘serangan tandatangan’, di mana serangan Drone diberi pergi bukannya berda-sarkan pengenalan yang diketahui pejuang Al-Qaeda, tetapi pada kelakuan orang.

Dalam amalan, juruterbang Drone boleh menyerang mana-mana orang, yang kelihatan cukup lama dan bersenjata. Memandangkan bahawa orang yang tinggal di kawasan puak di Afghanistan, Pakistan atau Yaman mempunyai tradisi yang panjang membawa senjata peribadi sebagai tanda kelelakian,’ serangan tandatangan’ terdedah untuk membunuh ramai orang awam, pengkritik berkata.

Yemen dianggap sebagai Al-Qaeda di Semenanjung Arab (AQAP) bertapak utama apa yang dianggap sayap yang paling aktif rangkaian militan.

Pengkritik mengekalkan bahawa program serangan Drone di negara ini telah melakukan apa-apa untuk mengekang pertumbuhan Al-Qaeda, dan telah pun meningkatkan sokongan untuk rangkaian keganasan.

“Setiap kali ada serangan Drone, itulah alat merekrut terbaik untuk Al-Qaeda. Membunuh orang2 di majlis perkahwinan, saya pasti, akan membawa kepada tidak beribu, tetapi mungkin 100 orang yang menyertai Al-Qaeda, “kata aktivis politik Medea Benjamin mem-beritahu RT.” Ini jaminan bahawa kitaran keganasan akan pergi dalam peperangan ber-terusan.”

Walau bagaimanapun, pada bulan Ogos, Yaman meminta Amerika Syarikat membekalkan negara dengan pesawat untuk membantu ia melawan ancaman Al-Qaeda.

In addition to the high civilian casualty rates, critics say drone strikes are done in violation of international law, and question whether the Obama administration has the authority to sanction the killings without a court warrant.

One particular practice denounced by human rights activists is the use of so-called ‘signature strikes’, in which a drone attack is given a go based not on identification of known Al-Qaeda fighters, but on the behavior of people.

In practice, drone pilots may attack any males, who look old enough and are armed. Considering that people living in tribal areas of Afghanistan, Pakistan or Yemen have a long tradition of carrying personal weapons as a sign of manhood, ‘signature strikes’ are prone to kill many civilians, critics say.

Yemen is considered to be the Al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP)’s main foothold of what is deemed the most active wing of the militant network.

Critics maintain that the drone strikes program in the country has done nothing to stem the growth of Al-Qaeda, and has even increased support for the terror network.

“Every time there is a drone strike, that’s the best recruiting tool for Al-Qaeda. Killing people in a wedding party, I am sure, will lead to not tens, but probably a hundred people joining Al-Qaeda,” political activist Medea Benjamin told RT. “This guarantees that the cycle of violence will go on in perpetual war.”

However, in August, Yemen requested that the US supply the country with drones in order to help it fight the Al-Qaeda threat.