Yemeni Families Seek Justice for US Drone Strike Killings

Human rights group Reprieve, submitted the petition to the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights on behalf of the families on Tuesday, said the families suffered enormous loss of life and property in six drone strikes and a special operations raid.

The Yemeni families lost their relatives and property between 2013 and 2018 in six drone airstrikes and a special operations raid conducted by American forces, said human rights group Reprieve, which submitted the petition to the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights on behalf of the affected families.

“It is averred that the seven attacks at issue have resulted in the unlawful killing of at least 48 people, including 17 children, and in the serious injury of at least seven others, as well as the destruction of their personal property and livelihoods,” said the petition cited by AFP on Thursday.

Of those killed, 34 were members of the Al-Ameri and Al-Taisy families, who are requesting the commission urge the US government to take immediate measures to prevent further harm as it reviews the files – often a long process that could take years.

According to the petition, the first strike, which took place in December 2013 under the administration of Barack Obama, targeted a wedding procession convoy, killing at least 12 people, including seven Al-Ameri family members and five people from the Al-Taisy family, according to the filing.

The remaining six operations were all carried out during the tenure of former US president Donald Trump.

The petition comes just days after US President Joe Biden took office and it puts the spotlight on America’s long-running bombing campaign in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP), on which the US rarely comments.

Reviewing such files is often a long process that can take years.

“What the families are hoping for from the commission is first and foremost recognition of the harm that's been done to them,” said Jennifer Gibson, a lawyer with Reprieve, adding that they had tried several times to engage Washington to halt the strikes, “and yet they've continued.”

Saudi Arabia and a number of its regional allies launched a devastating war on Yemen in March 2015, with the goal of bringing the government of former president Abd Rabbuh Mansur Hadi, a staunch ally of Riyadh, back to power and crushing the popular Houthi Ansarullah movement.

More than 110,000 Yemenis have been killed since the onset of war, which has destroyed much of the impoverished country’s infrastructure.

At least 80 percent of the 28-million-strong population of Yemen is reliant on aid to survive in what the UN has called the world’s worst humanitarian crisis.

The brutal war has destroyed or closed half of Yemen’s hospitals and clinics, leaving Yemenis helpless particularly at a time when they are in desperate need of medical supplies to fight the COVID-19 pandemic.