US drone strikes in Yemen : Strikes and casualties | Trend |
On 24 January 2013, the US have killed a huge number of people in Yemen — between 374 and 1,112 fatalities — in a covert drone war that is being put in overdrive. The so-called US war on terror looks increasingly like a war of terror, aimed at instilling panic fear among the civilian population by means of direct, deliberate and indiscriminate attacks on civilians, who make 16% of the killed, including a large percentage of children (20% of the total civilians). No stretch of imagination can provide a sensible justification for such a murderous campaign, undertaken against the basic right to human life, and in violation of all provisions of international laws.
The estimates are conservative, based on field research made by investigative journalists who cautiously discriminate between confirmed and validated casualties, and other cases that could not be hundred percent corroborated. Obviously, the US administration should be able to provide the real numbers — however, in spite of insistent requests, including appeals to civil courts, by the press and civil rights associations, authorities decline to supply any details on the subject.
US Drone War in Yemen¹ | ||
Lower limit | Upper limit | |
Confirmed drone strikes | 42 | 52 |
Possible extra drone strikes | 77 | 93 |
Total reported killed | 374 | 1,112 |
Total civilians killed | 72 | 178 |
Children killed | 27 | 37 |
¹ Status as of 24 January 2013. |
US authorities are putting the Yemen covert drone war in overdrive. The number of drone strikes has grown at an annual average rate of 63%, or a doubling period of 1.4 year, and the confirmed killings grew at the rate of 51.2%, a doubling period of 1.7 year. At these rates, the Yemen covert war may soon become a large-scale armed conflict, bound to raise a host of problems, military, political, diplomatic, legal and of other types.
Trends of US drone war in Yemen¹ | |||||||
Year | Drone strikes | Drone killings | |||||
Confirmed | Possible | Total | Cumulative | Confirmed | Cumulative | ||
2001 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | |
2002 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 6 | 6 | |
2003 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 6 | |
2004 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 6 | |
2005 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 6 | |
2006 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 6 | |
2007 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 6 | |
2008 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 6 | |
2009 | 3 | 0 | 3 | 4 | 88 | 94 | |
2010 | 2 | 4 | 6 | 10 | 13 | 107 | |
2011 | 13 | 16 | 29 | 39 | 82 | 189 | |
2012 | 26 | 61 | 87 | 126 | 185 | 374 | |
2013 | 0 | 8 | 8 | 134 | 0 | 374 | |
Total | 45 | 89 | 134 | 374 | |||
Average annual growth rate (2002-2012) | 63.20% | 51.17% | |||||
¹ Status as of 24 January 2013. |
Sources: The Bureau of Investigative Journalism.