Civilian Casualties

Civilian Casualties

Incident Code

USYEM144-C

Incident date

January 19, 2013

Location

وادي عبيدة, Wadi Obeida, Ma'rib, Yemen

Geolocation

15.515556, 45.395278 Note: The accuracy of this location is to Neighbourhood/area level. Continue to map

Airwars assessment

A suspected US drone strike in Wadi Obeida, Ma’rib governorate on January 19th 2013 between 11 o’clock at night and midnight killed up to four civilians, with conflicting reports that in fact up to six Al Qaeda militants were killed. According to Mareb Press, the strike hit and destroyed a vehicle that Al Qaeda seized during clashes with the Yemeni army in the previous month. The air raid was the last of a series of three separate strikes in the same area that day.

AFP initially reported that the strike killed four people from the ‘al Haytak clan, part of the Abida tribe’ without specifying if they were al Qaeda militants or civilians. However the agency subsequently reported five alleged al Qaeda militants perished in the strike, including Hamad Hassan Ghreib (aka Amhed Bin Hassan Ali Gahreib). According to a ‘local source’ his brother Ali Bin Hassan Bin Ghurayib was a non-combatant who was killed, along with a group of militants, in a drone strike in August 2012. Angry tribesmen blocked the main road from Marib to Sanaa in protest the morning after the strike.

The only other source to mention civilian casualties was a Twitter account (Kevin Goztola), reported that four civilians were killed in US drone strikes “yesterday” (posted on January 21, 2023 local time). It is unclear which of the strikes between January 19-20 the tweet is referring to, and have therefore been recorded in this incident.  No other sources mention civilian casualties resulting from this strike. Mareb Press, Almanar, and Almasdar Online corroborated the number of five deaths as well as the killing of Hamad Hassan Ghreib. However, Almasdar Online and Mareb Press did not specify whether the four other victims were militants, saying that the identities are unknown “as a result of the charred corpses.” In contrast, Almanar claimed that two of the passengers were Saudi militants while the majority of sources attribute the two Saudi nationals to another strike earlier that day. Xinhua and Twitter account @news_yemen reported the killing of a total of six people. Xinhua thereby claimed that all six were Al Qaeda operatives.

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.

The incident occured between 11:00 pm and 12:00 am local time.

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.

Summary

  • Strike status
    Likely strike
  • Strike type
    Airstrike, Drone Strike
  • Civilian harm reported
    Yes
  • Civilians reported killed
    0 – 4
  • Cause of injury / death
    Heavy weapons and explosive munitions
  • Airwars civilian harm grading
    Weak
    Single source claim, though sometimes featuring significant information.
  • Suspected belligerent
    US Forces
  • Suspected target
    Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP)
  • Belligerents reported killed
    4–6

Sources (51) [ collapse]

US Forces Assessment:

  • Suspected belligerent
    US Forces
  • US Forces position on incident
    Not yet assessed

Summary

  • Strike status
    Likely strike
  • Strike type
    Airstrike, Drone Strike
  • Civilian harm reported
    Yes
  • Civilians reported killed
    0 – 4
  • Cause of injury / death
    Heavy weapons and explosive munitions
  • Airwars civilian harm grading
    Weak
    Single source claim, though sometimes featuring significant information.
  • Suspected belligerent
    US Forces
  • Suspected target
    Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP)
  • Belligerents reported killed
    4–6

Sources (51) [ collapse]