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Title: US facing court challenges from drone 'kill list' survivors
Source: [None]
URL Source: http://www.middleeasteye.net/news/u ... vivors-and-families-1830803863
Published: Sep 20, 2017
Author: Amandla Thomas-Johnson
Post Date: 2017-09-20 06:12:07 by Ada
Keywords: None
Views: 32

Rights groups, journalists and the family of an anti-al-Qaeda imam in Yemen take US to task for targeted assassination programme

One afternoon, three suspected al-Qaeda militants arrived at the door of a house in Mukalla, eastern Yemen, demanding to speak with Salem bin Ali Jaber, a local imam.

It is August 2012, and the United States is conducting a covert drone war in the skies above Yemen against al-Qaeda, which is gaining a foothold in the country, despite the death of its leader Osama bin Laden months earlier.

Salem had drawn the attention of the suspected militants - days before he dared to give a sermon that challenged al-Qaeda to justify their attacks on civilians.

He was out, his father told the men before alerting his son.

The three men returned later that evening and found Salem at the local mosque with Waleed bin Ali Jaber, a policeman and relative whom he had asked to accompany him in case of any trouble.

Two of the men sat to talk with Salem under a palm tree as Waleed and the third man looked on.

Members of the bin Ali Jaber family would later reveal in court documents the horror of what happened next.

"I heard the buzzing of the drone, and then heard and saw the orange and yellow flash of a tremendous explosion.”

The family, led by Faisal bin Ali Jaber - Salem's brother-in-law and Waleed's uncle - say that all five men were killed by four Hellfire missiles unleashed by a US drone.

Faisal bin Ali Jaber, Salem's brother-in-law and Walid's uncle, is leading the charge for accountability for the drone killings (Reprieve) They are seeking an apology from the US government and an admission that the strike was unlawful.

US authorities are facing a number of such cases as victims' families and survivors seek accountability and campaigners attempt to part the cloud of secrecy surrounding killer drones.

Their effort comes as new figures from rights group Reprieve reveal a drastic increase in the rate of strikes and multiple civilian deaths in Yemen since Donald Trump became US president.

Lawyers representing the family argued at the appeals court in Washington in December that drone operators had a chance to target the suspected militants as their car sped toward Mukalla and before they entered a crowded civilian area.

But even that may have been avoided. An allied military base lay just three kilometres away, which lawyers argued meant that Yemeni officials could have been called on to attempt to detain the men.

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