Incident Code
Incident Code
Incident Date
Location
Geolocation
Geolocation
Airwars Assessment
(Previous Incident Code: YEMT041-C)
Multiple sources reported that US drone strikes targeted alleged AQAP militant positions in Novan, in the Qaifa area of Bayda governorate, on the evening of March 5th. There was one known report of possible civilian injury due to the strike.
Local language Twitter sources reported that airstrikes targeted AQAP militants in the Novan mountains. The timing of local reports suggested that the strikes took place around 10.30pm local time.
According to Reuters, an airstrike hit the “home of a suspected al Qaeda member in the village of Noufan”. According to Elwatan News, local sources said that only civilians were wounded in the course of both this strike and a second overnight attack on al-Saeed, Shabwa. Though it was unclear which specific strike(s) resulted in civilian injury, the claim has been accounted for in this event. A minimum of two civilian injuries has been set, and the claim assessed as “weak”.
This reported event took place amid a dramatic intensification of US operations against AQAP in March 2017. On March 6th, Pentagon spokesman Captain Jeff Davis announced that forty strikes had been conducted in Yemen over the previous five nights. A day earlier, AFP reported that AQAP militants had begun to withdraw from several areas in response to US attacks.
In its May 2018 annual civilian casualty report, the US Department of Defense stated that “there were credible reports of civilian casualties caused by U.S. military actions in Yemen against AQAP and ISIS during 2017”, but did not specify which specific actions these reports referred to. Overall, the Department of Defense assessed that there were credible reports of “approximately 499 civilians killed and approximately 169 civilians injured during 2017”, as a result of US military actions in Iraq, Syria, Afghanistan, and Yemen.
Responding to Airwars’ publication of its Yemen dataset and accompanying report in October 2020, CENTCOM dismissed all but two civilian harm claims under President Trump, asserting that “USCENTCOM conducted a thorough review of the information AirWars provided regarding allegations of potential civilian harm caused by USCENTCOM strikes in Yemen from 2017-2020… The bulk of the information asserted by AirWars, however, did not correspond with dates and locations of U.S. military strikes or raids in Yemen. Other AirWars allegations either did not allege civilian harm or were not assessed as credible upon our review.”
Key Information
Geolocation Notes
Reports of the incident mention the village of Jabal Novan (جبل نوفان), north from the town of Rada’a (رداع), within the Qifah (قيفه) district, for which the coordinates are: 14.493551, 44.760258. Due to limited satellite imagery and information available to Airwars, we were unable to verify the location further.
Military Statements
Media From Sources (2)
مراسل الجزيرة : طائرة امريكية بدون طيار تشن غارات على منطقتي نوفان وعقبة زعج بمديرية القريشية في محافظة البيضاء وسط اليمن.
— سمير النمري Sameer Alnamri (@sameer_alnamri) March 5, 2017