Incident Code
Incident Date
Location
Airwars Assessment
(Previous Incident Codes: YEM117USYEM133)
On January 19th 2013, between 7 and 10:30 pm, the first of three alleged US drone strikes in the Wadi Abidah region in al-Hatik in Marib struck an orange farm in the populated Al-Masil area in Al Dsaleel, Ra’ed Fadi Abdullah. There were no reported casualties, civilian or militant but according to eyewitnesses, the strike damaged neighbouring houses and caused panic in the population.
A tribal source speaking to Xinhua claimed that a vehicle parked in the orchard was the intended target of the strike but missed, and Mareb Press identified the car as being a Vitara car with suspected Al Qaeda militants.
Al Masdar Online reported that the strike caused damage to neighboring houses and caused great panic among the local populations, who blocked the Sanaa-Marib line to protest the strikes which were “shaking their homes and frightening the children”.
An official at the Criminal Investigation Unit in Marib told Xinhua the strike hit at 10.30pm while Yemen Observer referred to the strike as occurring at 7pm.
Local sources referred to the drone strikes as being carried out by the US. The Yemen defence ministry reportedly confirmed the strikes hit Mareb province but would not confirm if the Yemen Air Force or US forces carried out the attacks. The Yemen Air Force has been shown to lack the technical capacity to launch precision strikes, or fly at night.
This incident was identified by the Bureau of Investigative Journalism and has been included in Airwars’ database even though no casualties are mentioned.
Key Information
Geolocation Notes
Reports of the incident mention a vehicle being struck in the Wadi Obeida (وادي عبيدة) area, east of Mar’ib (مأرب) city. Due to limited satellite imagery and information available to Airwars, we were unable to verify the location further. The generic coordinates for Wadi Obeida are: 15.515556, 45.395278.