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GCHQ intel sharing for drone strikes may be ‘accessory to murder’

Published

October 25, 2012

Written by

Alice Ross
This page is archived from original Bureau of Investigative Journalism reporting on US military actions in Yemen, Somalia, Pakistan and Afghanistan.

In the loop? Officers at GCHQ have reportedly shared Taliban commanders’ locations with the CIA

(Photo: Ministry of Defence

UK intelligence officers may be assisting in murder or war crimes by sharing information with the CIA that leads to deaths in Pakistan drone strikes, a London court heard this week.

Pakistani tribesman Noor Khan, whose father was killed by a drone strike last year, has launched an application for a judicial review examining the UK’s alleged complicity in the CIA’s drone campaign. If Khan’s case is successful, judges will examine whether GCHQ officers can legally share information on the location of individuals if they believe this may be used to target them with drone strikes.

An ornate, book-lined courtroom at the Royal Courts of Justice was crowded with activists and government lawyers on October 23 and 24 as the first British legal challenge to the drone campaign got underway. Khan’s case against foreign secretary William Hague is backed by Reprieve and Islamabad-based lawyer Shahzad Akbar, and is funded by UK legal aid.

Related story – Evidence in British court contradicts CIA drone claims

The British government has hired a trio of highly respected barristers to fight its corner, including first Treasury counsel James Eadie QC, international law expert Professor Malcolm Shaw QC, and criminal law specialist Andrew Edis QC.

Press reports indicate the UK government shares intelligence, including the location of suspected militant commanders, with the CIA. In 2010 the Sunday Times quoted ‘insiders’ claiming that GCHQ has better interception networks than the CIA in south Asia, and had shared information about the locations of al Qaeda and Taliban commanders in both Afghanistan and Pakistan. GCHQ told the Sunday Times all intelligence sharing was in ‘strict accordance’ with the law.

But the government has never officially confirmed or denied sharing intelligence for drone attacks.

‘There’s a well known, well acknowledged drone programme, there’s a list of people the CIA wants to target as part of that drone programme. A GCHQ officer comes into information about the location of a person and passes it to the CIA officer, we say there’s a very real chance of a crime being committed,’ Khan’s barrister Martin Chamberlain said.

Lord Justice Moses, one of two judges who will decide whether to order a judicial review, commented that if individual officers could be held culpable, then so potentially could the foreign secretary, since the decision to share intelligence rests with him.

It would be amazing if the American government was sanguine about an English court saying it’s guilty of murder,’– James Eadie QC 

While soldiers who kill as part of an international armed conflict are protected from prosecution by combatant immunity, it’s unclear whether the turmoil in Pakistan’s volatile tribal belt constitutes a war, Chamberlain said. This could make the killings unlawful, and British officials who shared intelligence leading to those killings would be guilty of accessory to murder.

Even if this is held to be a war, the drone strikes could break international humanitarian law by exceeding what is ‘proportionate and necessary’ – leaving officers who share intelligence at risk of assisting crimes against humanity or war crimes, he added.

National interests

But holding a judicial review would mean delving into issues of national security, defence and diplomacy and could harm Britain’s national interests, Hague’s lead barrister James Eadie QC told the court. In particular, it could affect relations with the US, ‘our closest ally, whose importance to our national security I assume needs no stating in front of this court,’ he said.

Effectively English courts would be forced to rule on the legality – or otherwise – of the CIA’s drone campaign. ‘It would be amazing if the American government was sanguine about an English court saying it’s guilty of murder,’ he said.

Examining the legality of drone strikes would also mean exploring whether the Pakistani government gave its consent, which ‘may be controversial in Pakistan’: this too could have serious diplomatic and international consequences, he explained.

A judicial review would be ‘about as controversial and as potentially damaging as it’s possible to conceive,’ Eadie said.

A review would also mean revealing top-secret intelligence policies to the court – and since judicial review proceedings can’t include closed court materials, this would present severe practical problems, Eadie said. Intelligence policies and practices are scrutinised by parliament through the Intelligence and Security Committee, he added: a judicial review would see the courts ‘trespassing’ on parliament’s territory.

There are ‘jolly good reasons’ for not publishing policies relating to the intelligence services, he concluded, handing over to Andrew Edis.

Working from just a few A4 pages where the other barristers had had the judges leafing through enormous binders of case law, Edis scrutinised the chapter and verse of the criminal laws cited in Khan’s application.

‘Notionally, if someone’s to be accessory to a murder, it must be an illegal act in [the murderer’s] own country,’ Edis told the court. In this case, killing alleged militants is not illegal in the US, so therefore there is no ‘murder’ to which UK intelligence officers could be accessory, he argued.

Challenged by Lord Justice Moses as to whether it would be considered murder in Pakistan, Edis replied that the drone pilots are in Nevada, not Pakistan.

It is not the job of the English court to ‘consider whether a foreigner who commits an act of killing abroad is or isn’t guilty of murder’ – and this would in turn prevent the court from deciding whether a British citizen was an accessory to that murder, he said. ‘Nothing in the English law gives this court the power to decide what’s a murder in Waziristan or America.’

The application hearing is expected to conclude on October 25, and the judges are expected to return their decision in the coming weeks.

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UN team to investigate civilian drone deaths

Published

October 25, 2012

Written by

The Bureau
This page is archived from original Bureau of Investigative Journalism reporting on US military actions in Yemen, Somalia, Pakistan and Afghanistan.

London-based UN expert says Geneva unit will investigate civilian drone deaths

The United Nations plans to set up a special investigation unit examining claims of civilian deaths in individual US covert drone strikes.

UN investigators have been critical of US ‘extrajudicial executions’ since they began in 2002. The new Geneva-based unit will also look at the legality of the programme.

The latest announcement, by UN special rapporteur Ben Emmerson QC, was made in a speech on October 25 at Harvard law school. Emmerson, who monitors counter-terrorism for the UN, previously called in August for the US to hand over video of each covert drone attack.

The London-based lawyer became the second senior UN official in recent months to label the tactic of deliberately targeting rescuers and funeral-goers with drones ‘a war crime’.  That practice was first exposed by the Bureau for the Sunday Times in February 2012.

‘The Bureau has alleged that since President Obama took office at least 50 civilians were killed in follow-up strikes when they had gone to help victims and more than 20 civilians have also been attacked in deliberate strikes on funerals and mourners. Christof Heyns … has described such attacks, if they prove to have happened, as war crimes. I would endorse that view,’ said Emmerson.

‘Last resort’

Both Heyns and Emmerson have become increasingly vocal in recent months, even as the United States attempts to put its targeted killings scheme on a more formal footing.

‘If the relevant states are not willing to establish effective independent monitoring mechanisms… then it may in the last resort be necessary for the UN to act. Together with my colleague Christof Heyns, [the UN special rapporteur on extra-judicial killings], I will be launching an investigation unit within the special procedures of the [UN] Human Rights Council to inquire into individual drone attacks,’ Emmerson said in his speech.

The unit will also look at ‘other forms of targeted killing conducted in counter-terrorism operations, in which it is alleged that civilian casualties have been inflicted, and to seek explanations from the states using this technology and the states on whose territory it is used. [It] will begin its work early next year and will be based in Geneva.

‘The [global] war paradigm was always based on the flimsiest of reasoning, and was not supported even by close allies of the US,’ he added. ‘The first-term Obama administration initially retreated from this approach, but over the past 18 months it has begun to rear its head once again, in briefings by administration officials seeking to provide a legal justification for the drone programme of targeted killing in Pakistan, Yemen and Somalia.’

Emmerson singled out both President Obama and the Republican challenger Mitt Romney for criticism. ‘It is perhaps surprising that the position of the two candidates on this issue has not even featured during their presidential elections campaigns, and got no mention at all in Monday night’s foreign policy debate. We now know that the two candidates are in agreement on the use of drones.’

The UN expert made clear in his speech that pressure for action is now coming from member states – including two permanent members of the Security Council: ‘During the last session of the UN Human Rights Council in Geneva in June many states, including Russia and China called for an investigation into the use of drone strikes as a means of targeted killing.  One of the States that made that call was Pakistan,’ he noted.

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Incident Code

USYEM132-B

Incident date

October 21, 2012

Location

الحرقان عبيدة, Wadi Obeida, Marib, Yemen

Geolocation

15.569758, 45.443000 Note: The accuracy of this location is to Neighbourhood/area level. Continue to map

Airwars assessment

According to local and international media, on October 21st 2012 at around 8pm, a suspected US airstrike struck a Prado car, in the Hami and Al Damashqa area in the Obeida valley around 17km east of the city of Ma’arib, carrying three to four suspected Al Qaeda militants, killing everyone in the car. There are currently no known reports of civilian harm.

Yemen Press quoted local sources confirmed that a drone had killed at least four suspected Al Qaeda militants in the Obeida valley, including two Al Qaeda leaders. They reportedly heard four explosions, believed to be from the missiles “fired by the plane, adding that another car, believed to be tracking Al Qaeda militants, arrived at the scene of the accident and retrieved the bodies of the victims and took them to an unknown location.” The same sources reported to Yemen Press that there “is unconfirmed news indicating that “Sanad Eidan Al-Aqili” was killed in the operation.” Sanad Eidan Al-Aqili is the brother of a former leader in Al Qaeda, Hassan Al-Aqiliin Al-Qaeda, who was killed in Abyan governorate months before.

AFP also reported that local Al Qaeda commander Sanad Ouraidan al Aqili (aka Sanad Abdulla al Aqili) was among the dead. “Aqili’s three companions, whose bodies were blown to pieces, have not been identified yet,” a local policeman told AFP. Tribal sources in Ubaidah explained to the Al-Madina News that they “heard successive explosions, believed to be from missiles fired by the plane, noting that other Al Qaeda elements “rushed to the place and recovered the bodies that they could not determine the number or identity of their owners.”

AFP also quoted an unnamed tribal source as saying that “An unmanned aircraft fired a missile at a car in which four Al Qaeda operatives were traveling, which led to the burning of the car and the killing of those in it” and that “the attack took place on Sunday evening, 17 km east of the city of Ma’rib.”

Almotamar News also reported al-Aqili’’s death as a result of the strike. On Twitter, the Journalist Secretary of Ma’arib tweeted that three killed in the strike were foreign and that one was Yemeni: Saad al-Aqili. CNN also recieved information from a source saying that it was likely that Sanad Arifan Al-Aqili was killed in the strike.

A security source told CNN that a plane “launched an attack on a vehicle that was carrying a group of Al Qaeda militants in the Al-Batha area in Wadi Ubaida,” indicating that four were killed in the attack against a group of “Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula” leaders. The former jihadist, Tariq Al-Fadhli, revealed in a television interview that Wadi Ubaidah “is the main place for transferring spoils and financing Al Qaeda.

The incident occured at 20:00:00 local time.

Summary

  • Strike status
    Likely strike
  • Strike type
    Airstrike, Drone Strike
  • Civilian harm reported
    No
  • Civilians reported killed
    0
  • Cause of injury / death
    Heavy weapons and explosive munitions
  • Suspected attacker
    US Forces
  • Suspected target
    Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP)
  • Belligerents reported killed
    3–4

Sources (28) [ collapse]

Media
from sources (1) [ collapse]

  • Damage caused by alleged US airstrikes on October 21, 2012. (Image posted by almotamar)

Geolocation notes

Reports of the incident mention that a car was targeted in the Hami and Al Damashqa area in the Obeida valley (الحرقان عبيدة), around 17km east of the city of Ma’arib (مَأْرِب). Airwars was unable to locate Hami or Al Damashqa, however, the generic coordinates for the area 17km east of Ma’rib, in Obeida valley, are: 15.569758, 45.443000.

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
    0
  • Cause of injury / death
    Heavy weapons and explosive munitions
  • Suspected attacker
    US Forces
  • Suspected target
    Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP)
  • Belligerents reported killed
    3–4

Sources (28) [ collapse]

Incident Code

USYEM131-B

Incident date

October 18, 2012

Location

الرميلة, Rumaila, Abyan, Yemen

Geolocation

13.248986, 45.300528 Note: The accuracy of this location is to Village level. Continue to map

Airwars assessment

In a dawn attack, a series of missiles from an alleged unmanned airstrike were fired at targets on the outskirts of Jaar, apparently striking Al Qaeda militants on the verge of launching a suicide attack on military targets. The alleged US drone or Yemeni airstrike attack hit a farmhouse in the Wadi Anna bridge area, Northwest of Jaar and 2 kilometers away from a Yemeni military post that belongs to the 119 brigade according to Barakish.

Sources did not report any civilians harmed or killed, yet reports state that between 7 and 9 alleged Al Qaeda members were killed. USA Today reported 7 killed and three injured, Xinhua and Al Jazeera reported 8 killed and six injured. All other reports state that 9 alleged Al Qaeda members were killed. There was no civilian harm reported by local or international sources.

Two of those killed were wearing explosive belts, security sources told Reuters; anonymous officials confirmed to AP that the strikes ‘followed tips from locals of an imminent al-Qaeda attack on the town’. Reuters reported three separate strikes targeted a farmhouse, although ANI/Xinhua claimed the strikes hit two separate gatherings of alleged Al Qaeda militants and AP quoted locals saying they had seen two cars ablaze. An unnamed official and residents claimed the missiles were fired by a US drone, although eyewitnesses told ANI/Xinhua they had seen military planes flying overhead at the time of the attack. The Yemeni Ministry of Defense claimed the attack was carried out by the Yemeni 119th Infantry Brigade, although it is common for the Yemeni government to claim responsibility for attacks carried out by the US on its turf. Reuters also pointed out that local residents had said that the Yemeni troops only arrived at the scene after the air strikes. The New York Times reported that security officials, speaking on the condition of anonymity, acknowledged that the aircraft was American-operated.

Residents told Reuters they had found ‘six charred bodies and the scattered remains of three others’, while AP and others reported ’at least seven’ killed. Several sources named Nader al-Shaddadi, who was said to be a senior Al Qaeda militant, as being killed; Barakish and Aden al Ghad both named Morsel Mohsen Hassan and Kamal Ali Abker as being killed. Barakish also named Adan Ahmed Ali al Sha’ar and Awadh Hamman, adding that four further bodies had not been identified. Aden al Ghad named Abdullah Hussein Yousif Somali, Arfan al Shaher and Mohammed al Shaher. Reuters later said that five of the alleged militants killed were local teenagers from Jaar itself, who used the farmhouse as a typical sleeping cell. Adengad reported that members of the Popular Committees transferred the bodies of the victims to Al-Razi Hospital.

After the attack, there were reports that hundreds of Jaar’s residents, both men and women, gathered in front of the headquarters of the resistance committees in Jaar and fired in the air to celebrate Shadadi’s death. One resident told AFP that Shadadi, a Jaar resident himself, “had brought great harm to our city and he is responsible for all the devastation and the war” in the area.’ Akhbaralyom stated that after the incident, some locals of Jaar ‘looted aid for the poor and displaced families distributed by the Red Cross’.

The incident occured around dawn.

Summary

  • Strike status
    Contested strike
  • Strike type
    Airstrike, Drone Strike
  • Civilian harm reported
    No
  • Civilians reported killed
    0
  • Cause of injury / death
    Heavy weapons and explosive munitions
  • Suspected attackers
    US Forces, Yemeni Air Force
  • Suspected target
    Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP)
  • Belligerents reported killed
    7–9
  • Belligerents reported injured
    3–6

Sources (35) [ collapse]

Media
from sources (3) [ collapse]

  • This media contains graphic content. Click to unblur.

    Graphic image of a victim of alleged US or Yemeni airstrikes on October 18, 2012 (Image posted by akhbaralyom-ye.net)

  • This media contains graphic content. Click to unblur.

    Graphic image of a victim of alleged US or Yemeni airstrikes on October 18, 2012 (Image posted by Adengad)

Geolocation notes

Reports of the incident mention that a farm in the northwestern outskirts of the town of Ja’ar (جعار) was targeted, at a few kilometers distance from a military post. Sources also mention the village of Rumaila (الرميلة) and Al Jisr (الجسر), and the Jabal Ain and Wadi Bena/Bina (وادي بناء) areas. Airwars was unable to locate Al Jisr, Jabal Ain and Wadi Bena. However, the coordinates for the village of Rumaila (الرميلة) are: 13.248986, 45.300528.

US Forces Assessment:

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

Yemeni Air Force Assessment:

  • Suspected belligerent
    Yemeni Air Force
  • Yemeni Air Force position on incident
    Not yet assessed

Summary

  • Strike status
    Contested strike
  • Strike type
    Airstrike, Drone Strike
  • Civilian harm reported
    No
  • Civilians reported killed
    0
  • Cause of injury / death
    Heavy weapons and explosive munitions
  • Suspected attackers
    US Forces, Yemeni Air Force
  • Suspected target
    Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP)
  • Belligerents reported killed
    7–9
  • Belligerents reported injured
    3–6

Sources (35) [ collapse]

UK parliament launches group to focus on drones

Published

October 18, 2012

Written by

Alice Ross
This page is archived from original Bureau of Investigative Journalism reporting on US military actions in Yemen, Somalia, Pakistan and Afghanistan.

Under scrutiny: The Watchkeeper surveillance drone, on its maiden UK flight. (Photo: Defence Images)

Members of parliament Tom Watson and Zac Goldsmith are to lead a new parliamentary group set up to scrutinise the rapid spread of drones both on the battlefield and in civilian life.

The All-Party Parliamentary Group on Drones launched yesterday, with Labour MP Watson appointed as president and Conservative Zac Goldsmith as a vice president.

Clive Stafford Smith, director of legal charity Reprieve, told the politicians the US’s current use of drones in Pakistan, Yemen and Somalia amounts to ‘death penalty without trial’. He added: ‘We sleepwalked into a nuclear age, now we are sleepwalking into a drone age.’

He pointed to significant questions over the legal framework for such campaigns – as well as the secrecy over who is killed and whether they inspire extremism.

The UK currently flies five models of armed drone and has carried out 319 strikes in Afghanistan since 2008

And while reporting on drones tends to focus on the US’s covert campaigns, Chris Coles of Drone Wars UK highlighted research showing that 76 countries currently possess some form of unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV), however rudimentary – including Botswana, Panama and Lithuania.

Related story – Where’s all the money gone? How the UK spent £2bn on drones

The UK currently flies five types of drone, although only one model, the Reaper, is armed. It has carried out 319 strikes in Afghanistan since 2008, Coles added, with British pilots flying from the US drone base at Creech, Nevada. And in the final day of the last parliamentary session, the government quietly admitted it had also flown drone missions in Libya, despite previously insisting it had only flown drones in Afghanistan.

Drones are set to become increasingly prominent beyond the battlefield – but the legal framework for using them in civilian airspace remains problematic, politicians heard. At present it’s perfectly legal to fly your own drone, such as the £300 iPad-controlled Parrot, to within 150ft of your friends and neighbours.

Related story – Details of 99 UK drone strikes in Afghanistan revealed

Neither the Civil Aviation Authority or Astraea, the industry-led programme that aims to establish guidelines for civil use of drones, has shown much appetite for grappling with the privacy implications of this, Coles added. And new laws are expected to open up the UK’s skies for commercial drones in the next decade.

Watson told the Bureau the new group will meet an important need. ‘Drones herald a new era in military technology, and they require parliamentarians to consider all the policy implications, both internationally and domestically,’ he said.

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Incident Code

USYEM130-B

Incident date

October 4, 2012

Location

السدية, Sadiya, Shabwa, Yemen

Geolocation

14.3833330, 46.9000000 Note: The accuracy of this location is to Neighbourhood/area level. Continue to map

Airwars assessment

On the 4th of October 2012, a suspected US drone strike hit and killed up to six Ansar al-Sharia militants and injured up to four others in the desert region of al-Saeed in the southern Yemeni province of Shabwa. According to security sources reporting to Akhbar al-Youm, the strike took place at roughly eleven o’clock in the morning. Even though it cannot be ruled out, there are no reports of civilian harm.

Confusion exists concerning the number of dead and the circumstances around the strike. First an unnamed tribal leader reported to Akhbaar24 that “The initial outcome of the raid is five dead supporters of Al-Sharia.” Multiple other news sources, such as the Huffington Post and English Ahram, also reported that five militants died as a consequence of the strike. The Huffington Post gained their insight from a Yemeni security official who claimed the strike was American and that all those who died were located in the one car. The official was unaware of whether there were any casualties or injuries in the second car. Barakish Net, on the other hand, reported that a local source had told them that only three had been killed and that an unknown number of additional people had been injured. Akhbar al-Youm provided the highest report of casualties quoting security sources which claimed that six had died. What the different sources seem to have in common though is that they believe that it was an American drone that conducted the strike. The US, however, has not commented on the strike.

The circumstances of the strike are also unclear. Akhbaar24 reported that local residents had told AFP that the strike was conducted by a drone which fired four missiles hitting two cars carrying the Ansar al-Sharia members. However, Barakish Net reported that there were not only four missiles that were fired but in fact five. In the aftermath of the strike one of the local residents reported that “The cars were burning, and we could not approach them because the drone was still in the air.” According to 26 September, a local source had stated the dead bodies were later transported to Yeshbam and buried there. In addition, a tribal leader reported that four Al Qaeda vehicles were sent to the area after the strike and that they “set up a checkpoint on the road linking Saeed and Ataq”.

Furthermore, the location of the strike is also under dispute. Al Jazeera reported that witnesses said the two cars were travelling through the town of Saeed in Shabwa. However, Reuters reported that a security official claimed that the strike took place in the remote area of Maqbala which is also in the Shabwa province. CNN, who are citing two local security officials, claim, on the other hand, that the strikes were split between two locations. The first strike, which they claim killed three, took place in the al-Saeed district whilst two other strikes took place not far away in the Aal Mahdi district killing two. Images from the aftermath of the strike suggest that at least one of the strikes took place on a plain.

Concerning the identity of the militants who were killed, Yemen Post quoted a local official who stated that one of them was an Egyptian national and that one of the others was a leader of Al Qaeda in the Azzan Area. Multiple sources, such as 26 September Net and Barakish Net, confirm that one of the killed was an Egyptian. Akhbar al-Youm was able to add further detail to the identity of those killed, stating that one of the killed was Saad bin Atef al-Awlaki who is likely the leader of Al-Qaeda in the Azzan area which the other sources seem to have been referring to. Akhbar al-Youm reported however that information concerning the death of al-Awlaki is conflicting due to communication from the region being interrupted in the aftermath of the strike. Furthermore, more recent reports suggest that al-Awlaki may still be alive. France24 reports that al-Awlaki was one of the contenders to take over the leadership of al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula after the death of Qassim al-Rimi in 2020.

Akhbar al-Youm was also able to add that one of the others who seemed to have died from the strike is Abu Hajar al-Barasi. Al-Barasi was apparently the assistant of al-Habashi who was in charge of the militants located in Qarn al-Sawda. This knowledge they gained from the same security source who claimed that al-Awlaki had died. So far it does not seem like any other sources can confirm the death of al-Barasi.

Aside from al-Awlaki and al-Habashi, multiple news sources state that Sheikh Al-Abab (35) and Musab al-Masri, who are both prominent figures in Ansar al-Sharia, were also killed in the strike. Yemenat reports that the news outlet Al-Ghad had received exclusive statements from individuals close to Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula who said that al-Masri, who was an Egyptian national high up in the organisation, had been killed immediately by the first strike that hit the vehicle. Al-Masri was apparently a prominent figure who had been given a 21 year prison sentence in Egypt but then he was able to escape during the revolution and join Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula.

Al-Abab, was on the other hand, according to Al-Quds Al-Arabi, the fourth highest ranked in the Al-Jihad based in the Arabian Peninsula. The news outlet quoted a private source who stated that Al-Abab and an aide “were martyred in the American raid that was carried out by an unmanned plane in the Upper Egypt district of Shabwa governorate a few days ago.” According to Yemenat, unlike al-Masri, Al-Abab was not killed by the first strike. He was instead able to escape from the area after the strike. As people rushed to the scene, Al-Abab escaped by foot and managed to get several kilometres away. However, Al-Ghad’s source, which Yemenat were referring to, had stated that the drone tracked down Al-Abab shortly after and fired another missile. Al-Abab was apparently killed by a piece of shrapnel which hit him as a result of this strike. According to a government source reporting to NZWeek, Al-Abab was seriously injured by the strike but did not die immediately. He was first transported to a local medical centre but then later succumbed to his injuries.

The incident occured at 11:00:00 local time.

Summary

  • Strike status
    Likely strike
  • Strike type
    Airstrike, Drone Strike
  • Civilian harm reported
    No
  • Civilians reported killed
    0
  • Cause of injury / death
    Heavy weapons and explosive munitions
  • Suspected attacker
    US Forces
  • Suspected target
    Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP)
  • Belligerents reported killed
    3–6
  • Belligerents reported injured
    2–4

Sources (38) [ collapse]

Media
from sources (1) [ collapse]

Geolocation notes

Reports of the incident mention the villages of Al Hqail (الحقيل), Sadiya (السدية) and Baras/Pars (بارس) in the Said (مديرية الصعيد) district of Shabwa governorate. Airwars was unable to locate Al Hqail and Baras areas, however, the coordinates for the area of Sadiya (السدية), just north of the town of Said, are: 14.3833330, 46.9000000. The image published of the damaged vehicles suggests that the strike took place in a flat area rather than in the surrounding mountains. Due to limited information and satellite imagery available to Airwars, we were unable to verify the location further.

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
    0
  • Cause of injury / death
    Heavy weapons and explosive munitions
  • Suspected attacker
    US Forces
  • Suspected target
    Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP)
  • Belligerents reported killed
    3–6
  • Belligerents reported injured
    2–4

Sources (38) [ collapse]

September 2012 update: US covert actions in Pakistan, Yemen and Somalia

Published

October 1, 2012

Written by

Chris Woods and Jack Serle
This page is archived from original Bureau of Investigative Journalism reporting on US military actions in Yemen, Somalia, Pakistan and Afghanistan.

A US Reaper drone on the tarmac at Creech, Nevada – achesonblog/Flickr

Pakistan: CIA drone strikes pause for a short period as Muslims protest around the world against a US-made video. A senior al Qaeda leader is killed in resumed strikes.

Yemen: Eleven named civilians die in a strike in central Yemen, the worst civilian tally since May. The US declines to say if its drones are responsible.

Somalia: As Kenyan and Somali forces attack Kismayo, al Shabaab’s last stronghold, the Bureau is told that foreign armies ‘have a licence to ignore international law’ in Somalia,

Pakistan

September 2012 actions

Total CIA strikes in September: 3

Total killed in strikes in September: 12-18, of whom 0-3 were reportedly civilians

All actions 2004 – September 30 2012

Total Obama strikes: 294

Total US strikes since 2004: 346

Total reported killed: 2,570-3,337

Civilians reported killed: 474-884

Children reported killed: 176

Total reported injured: 1,232-1,366For the Bureau’s full Pakistan databases click here.

After seven strikes in August – the most in a single month since October 2011 – September saw a pause in the bombing which lasted 20 days. The respite coincided with many and sometimes violent anti-US protests around the world. Muslims were inflamed by a blasphemous film, produced in the US and posted online. Up to 17 people died in riots across Pakistan as public outrage at drone strikes reportedly added to the violence.

On September 24 two named al Qaeda militants were killed by the CIA. Saleh al Turki ‘was not on the FBI’s bounty list, but was a mid level AQ guy’. However Abu Kahsha al Iraqi was described as ‘a liaison between al Qaeda and the Taliban’ and ‘long a target of Western counterterrorism agencies.’

The Bureau’s work on drone activity in Pakistan was praised by a report produced by Stanford and New York University law schools. The 165-page study found that  the Bureau’s Covert War project provided the ‘best currently available public aggregate data on drone strikes’.

Academics from Stanford and New York universities interviewed over 130 survivors, witnesses and experts, which led them to conclude that the ‘dominant narrative’ in the US – that the surgical precision of drones means they are operated in Pakistan with ‘minimal downsides or collateral impacts’ – is ‘false’. Testimony from a number of eyewitnesses also corroborated the Bureau’s own findings – that the CIA deliberately targets rescuers.

Another report by Columbia University focused on policymakers in Washington, raising concerns about transparency and accountability in the decade-old programme of US targeted killings by drone.

Yemen

September 2012 actions

Confirmed US drone strikes: 0 Further reported/possible US strike events: 4-5 Total reported killed in US operations: 0-40Civilians reported killed in US strikes: 0-12

All actions 2002 – September 30 2012*

Total confirmed US operations: 52-62

Total confirmed US drone strikes: 40-50

Possible additional US operations: 117-133

Of which possible additional US drone strikes: 61-71

Total reported killed: 357-1,026

Total civilians killed: 60-163

Children killed: 24-34Click here for the full Yemen data.

US and Yemeni officials were unusually reticent in September in attributing air strikes to United States air assets, including drones. That may have been due to the deaths of eleven named civilians in a botched airstrike in Radaa in central Yemen, the worst loss of civilian life since at least 12 civilians were killed in May. Victims of the strike were buried 18 days later in Dhamar with police pallbearers.

Abdulraouf al Dahab was the supposed target of the strike. But it missed the alleged militant leader’s car and hit civilian vehicles. A ten-year-old girl Daolah Nasser was killed with her parents. Two boys – Mabrook Mouqbal Al Qadari (13) and AbedalGhani Mohammed Mabkhout (12) – were also among those killed.

Some reports said US drones carried out the strike. The Yemen Air Force publicly claimed responsibility for the attack but it lacks the technical capability to strike a moving target.

That fact was confirmed by President Hadi on a visit to Washington, where he also claimed to approve every US strike carried out in Yemen, and downplayed civilian deaths.

Minimum confirmed and possible strike events in Yemen, January to September 30 2012.

A suspected US drone killed at least six people, eight days after the Radaa strike. Said al Shehri was initially reported among the dead. But subsequent reports say the former Guantanamo inmate and al Qaeda’s number two in Yemen survived the attack.

* All but one of these actions have taken place during Obama’s presidency. Reports of incidents in Yemen often conflate individual strikes. The range in the total strikes and total drone strikes we have recorded reflects this.

Somalia

September 2012 actions

Total reported US operations: 0

All actions 2007 – September 30 2012

Total US operations: 10-23

Total US drone strikes: 3-9Total reported killed: 58-170Civilians reported killed: 11-57

Children reported killed: 1-3

Click here for the Bureau’s full data on Somalia.

 

Once again no US combat operations were reported for September, although a former UN official told the Bureau that as much as 50% of secret actions by various forces operating in Somalia go unreported. Two previously unrecorded operations have been added to the Bureau’s data. These relate to possible US strikes on al Shabaab bases in Puntland in August, and in Kismayo in October 2011.

Kenyan Defence Force (KDF) troops finally struck al Shabaab’s last stronghold, Kismayo, in Operations Sledge Hammer alongside soldiers of the Somalia National Army. The KDF is fighting in Somalia as a part of the Amisom peacekeeping force and attacked Kismayo from the land and sea before dawn on September 28. Initial reports said they met with some resistance from al Shabaab but had taken control of the city’s port. It is possible that US forces assisted the operation.

A Somali diplomat told the Bureau that the outgoing Transitional Federal Government opened its doors to the US and others to fight al Shabaab, and in doing so allowed them ‘a licence to completely ignore any local or international law.’ US Special Forces and CIA are operating across Somalia. And the US is supporting proxy forces with training and weapons.

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Obama risks handing ‘loaded gun’ drone programme to Romney

Published

September 30, 2012

Written by

Alice Ross
This page is archived from original Bureau of Investigative Journalism reporting on US military actions in Yemen, Somalia, Pakistan and Afghanistan.

Obama ‘in thrall to the technological potential of drones’ says Columbia Law School author

(Photo: spirit of America/Shutterstock).

President Obama’s personal involvement in selecting the targets of covert drone strikes means he risks effectively handing a ‘loaded gun’ to Mitt Romney come November, says the co-author of a new report aimed at US policymakers.

‘If Obama leaves, he’s leaving a loaded gun: he’s set up a programme where the greatest constraint is his personal prerogative. There’s no legal oversight, no courtroom that can make [the drone programme] stop. A President Romney could vastly accelerate it,’ said Naureen Shah, associate director of the Counterterrorism and Human Rights Project at the Columbia Law School.

The president ‘personally approves every military target’ in Yemen and Somalia and around a third of targets in Pakistan, the report says. The remainder of strikes in Pakistan are decided by the CIA, so are even further from formal decision-making processes and public scrutiny.

‘We are asking President Obama to put something in writing, to disclose more, because he needs to set up the limitations of the programme before someone else takes control,’ Shah told the Bureau.

In The Civilian Impact of Drones: Unexamined Costs, Unanswered Questions, experts from Columbia Law School and the Center for Civilians in Conflict examine the impact of the US ‘war on terror’ on the lives of civilian Pakistanis, Yemenis and Somalis caught in the crossfire. The report’s publication marks the anniversary of the assassination of US citizen Anwar al-Awlaki by a US drone in Yemen.

We are asking President Obama to put something in writing, to disclose more, because he needs to set up the limitations of the programme before someone else takes control.’

Naureen Shah, Columbia Law School

The report, which Shah said is ‘aimed squarely at policymakers’, calls on the Obama administration to justify its drone campaigns and their targets under international law. It also calls for a task force to examine what measures are in place to protect civilians.

‘The perception is that civilian casualties are not a problem. If you say otherwise, you’re accused of being naïve and being a pawn of al Qaeda… There’s an instinctual dismissal of reporting that shows there’s a casualty problem,’ said Shah.

Deep impact

The report examines how drone strikes have prompted retaliatory attacks from militants on those they believe are US spies, and stirred anti-US sentiment and violence among civilians in Pakistan and Yemen.

In the Waziristan region of Pakistan, the near-constant presence of drones exerts a terrible psychological toll on the civilian population, while the destruction of homes and other property is often catastrophic for Pakistani and Yemeni families.

In Somalia, many have been ‘forced to flee’ their homes in areas where al Qaeda-linked militants al Shabaab have their strongholds, to avoid drone and other air attacks.

The perception is that civilian casualties are not a problem. If you say otherwise, you’re accused of being naïve and being a pawn of al Qaeda, and not having your facts straight.

Naureen Shah

And while the US claims only tiny numbers of civilians are killed by drones, establishing the truth of these claims is difficult. The report compares the Bureau’s estimates of drone deaths in Pakistan to similar projects by the Long War Journal, the New America Foundation and the Pakistan Institute of Peace Studies, noting that they ‘consistently point to significantly higher civilian casualties than those suggested by the US government’s statements’.

But deciding who is a militant and who is a civilian is fraught with difficulty – the very terms ‘civilian’ and ‘militant’ are ‘ambiguous, controversial, and susceptible to manipulation,’ the report says.

The US’s criteria for who is a civilian are ‘deeply problematic’, it adds. In May, a New York Times investigation revealed that all ‘military-aged males’ are held to be militants.

Spy agency turned covert military force

The CIA decides on the targets of Pakistan strikes – but next to nothing is known about its procedures for monitoring whether strikes kill civilians. To this day, the CIA has never officially acknowledged its campaign.

‘We know the US military has set up procedures for tracking and responding to civilian deaths because there’s so much public scrutiny… The CIA has no institutional history of complying with international law or setting up procedures for civilian deaths,’ said Shah. ‘It was a covert spy agency; it wasn’t set up for this. We don’t know how prepared they are to monitor civilian deaths or how concerned they are.’

The CIA is supposed to be accountable to Congress – but lawmakers are failing to scrutinise the impact of the CIA’s drone campaign on civilians, Shah said. Its watchdog role is compromised by the fact that the CIA has been ‘really careful to get political buy-in’, having come under intense criticism from Congress over allegations of torture under President Bush.

‘The strange thing about Congress is they think they are very well informed through briefings from the CIA… The CIA has got them to buy into the drone programme, so there’s no incentive for them to criticise it. If they were to admit there was a problem, Congress would be on the hook as well,’ she continued.

The CIA has no institutional history of complying with international law or setting up procedures for civilian deaths. It was a covert spy agency; it wasn’t set up for this.

Naureen Shah

Lawmakers should look beyond government sources for information on the impact of drone strikes, and scrutinise whether the CIA’s processes for protecting civilians and investigating the aftermath of strikes are up to the task, the report says.

The Obama administration is so in thrall to drones’ technological potential that alternatives are barely considered, Shah said.

‘For policymakers there’s a false sense of limited options: [there’s] a drones-only approach in the situation room… drones are becoming the only game in town and the other tools are being taken off the table. And there’s no thought that a non-lethal approach might have less impact on the community,’ she explained.

‘The focus is so much on the extent to which drones protect American lives that the impact on Pakistani or Somali lives is displaced. There’s so much trust placed in the technology that policymakers especially are failing to consider whether drone strikes are wreaking havoc on these communities.’

Columbia Law School’s Human Rights Institute will publish an additional detailed study of reporting of drone strikes – including an evaluation of the Bureau’s drone data in comparison to similar studies – in the next few weeks.

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