Civilian Casualties

Civilian Casualties

Incident Code

USYEMTr138

Incident date

January 16, 2018

Location

مديرية الصومعة, Al Suma'a District, Al Bayda, Yemen

Geolocation

14.166667, 45.831111 Note: The accuracy of this location is to District level. Continue to map

Airwars assessment

A US drone strike reportedly killed an alleged AQAP militant on a motorbike in Sama’a district, in Bayda governorate, on the evening of January 16th 2018. There were no known associated reports of civilian harm.

Both @demolinari and @AdenNowNews reported that Akram Al-Adeni was killed by a US strike in Sama’a on that day; according to their sources, @AdenNowNews indicated that the strike took place in the evening.

However, another source, @JoshuaKoontz__, suggested only that a pro-AQAP account had claimed that Akram Al-Adeni was killed in a “recent airstrike”. This same source indicated that Al-Adeni may instead have been killed in an earlier US strike in Sama’a on January 9th 2018 (USYEMTr131), which reportedly killed three AQAP militants.

CENTCOM also did not declare a strike in the area for this date, in a lengthy comment to the Long War Journal. Since two sources suggested a discrete strike on the 16th, this event has been assessed as “likely”.

The local time of the incident is unknown.

Geolocation notes (1) [ collapse]

Reports of the incident mention the Al Suma’a District (مديرية الصومعة) for which the generic coordinates are: 14.166667, 45.831111. Due to limited satellite imagery and information available to Airwars, we were unable to verify the location further.

  • Reports of the incident mention the Al Suma’a District (مديرية الصومعة).

    Imagery:
    Google Earth

Summary

  • Strike status
    Likely strike
  • Strike type
    Airstrike, Drone Strike
  • Civilian harm reported
    No
  • Civilians reported killed
    Unknown
  • Cause of injury / death
    Heavy weapons and explosive munitions
  • Suspected belligerent
    US Forces
  • Suspected target
    Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP)
  • Belligerents reported killed
    1

Sources (5) [ collapse]

Media
from sources (4) [ collapse]

  • One source, @JoshuaKoontz__, indicated that Akram Al-Adeni may have been killed in the January 9th-10th strike. Two sources, however, indicated that he may have instead died in an later strike on January 16th 2018. (@demolinari, January 17th 2018)

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
    No
  • Civilians reported killed
    Unknown
  • Cause of injury / death
    Heavy weapons and explosive munitions
  • Suspected belligerent
    US Forces
  • Suspected target
    Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP)
  • Belligerents reported killed
    1

Sources (5) [ collapse]