Al-Qaeda says `barbaric` U.S. drone strikes in Yemen kill civilians

USPA News - Al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP) has said U.S. drone strikes in Yemen are indiscriminately killing civilians without strong evidence they were militants or had links with them, calling the tactic "more savage and barbaric" than conventional warfare. The comments were published on Friday when the group released its tenth edition of the English-language online magazine `Inspire` that serves as a guide to potential and future jihadis.

The Spring 2013 issue, entitled "We Are All Usama," is the first edition to be released since two issues were released in May 2012. Responding to a question from a reader, the magazine`s author condemned the United States for "cowardly" using unmanned drones in residential areas of Yemen, Pakistan, Somalia, and previously in Libya. "In Yemen, they roam over Muslim houses, terrorizing children, women and the weak," the author said. The United States regularly carries out drone strikes in Yemen, and documents released by the whistle-blowing website WikiLeaks in November 2010 revealed that the Yemeni government has covered up the results of such strikes in the past. "We`ll continue saying the bombs are ours, not yours," then-Yemeni President Ali Abdullah Saleh told a U.S. official, according to a classified U.S. document. The al-Qaeda member, whose name is not revealed in the article, criticized the secretive nature of the drone program and claimed most of the victims are civilians. "They bombard `suspected` targets in villages, towns and cities. Why? Because far from Yemen, in the White House, [U.S. President Barack] Obama took a decision," he writes. "He decided to start a new chapter, a chapter more savage and barbaric than the previous chapters of the crusade on Yemeni Muslims." Because the CIA`s drone program is classified, the U.S. government does rarely comment on drone strikes and any evidence to prove victims were militants are never made public. The Yemeni government frequently covers for the United States, saying its own military carried out certain aistrikes while witnesses and security officials, speaking on the condition of anonymity, attribute them to U.S. drones. "This strategy allows officials in the CIA and the PTSD army to carry out attacks on any human, vehicle or building in Yemen if `suspected` to be a threat to the security of the US without the need to identify the real identity of the target, whether al-Qaeda or not," the militant group wrote. "This includes women and children. Just because an American `feels` this person poses danger. Whenever they have this `feeling` they order for a `Hell Fire missile` to be launched." Al-Qaeda, claiming the strikes kill more civilians than militants, also questioned the need for the program`s secretive nature. "They claim they have a noble cause. They want nations to imitate them. They legitimize their war on AQAP. If this war on AQAP is that noble, why does it have to be that secretive?" the author asks. "Why don`t they declare this war on Yemen just like they did in Afghanistan and Iraq? Why don`t they come and face the mujahideen (Muslim fighters) like men instead of killing civilians indiscriminately?" In late January, the United Nations (UN) announced it would open an investigation to investigate the deaths and injuries of civilians as a result of U.S. drone strikes in Pakistan, Afghanistan, Yemen, Somalia, as well as Palestinian regions. The probe, requested by countries such as Pakistan, Russia, and China, will also look into the establishing of legal and operational structures to regulate the use of drones under international law. Also in al-Qaeda`s article, the group criticized international media organizations for `falsely` identifying civilians killed by U.S. drone strikes as militants. "They (the U.S.) kill civilians intentionally and the next day we see CNN and ABC acting as WikiLeaks and report a `classified` operation in Yemen killed a "key al-Qaeda figure", who in fact is an old woman going to the hospital or a young man going to work." But the author said the civilian casualties work in their favor, echoing reports from Pakistan where it is sometimes claimed that civilian casualties from U.S. drone strikes motivate young men to join militants. "By the Grace of Allah, their blind weapons are backfiring," al-Qaeda said. "The more strikes they launch, the more the mujahideen are embraced by the people and more tribes are making pledges of alliances to the mujahideen. In Yemen, the general public knows their enemy is America." Inspire was launched by al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP) in July 2010 to attract aspiring jihadis who cannot read Arabic, and it has frequently been found in the possession of terrorism suspects. It offers instructions on bomb-making, weapons training, security measures as well as encryption lessons for beginners. It also offers extremist heavyweight Qur`anic commentary and rudimentary propaganda.