If true, this is pretty damning stuff and would constitute a war crime.
A US cruise missile carrying cluster bombs was behind a December attack in Yemen that killed 55 people, most of them civilians, Amnesty International (AI) said on Monday.
The London-based rights group released photographs that it said showed the remains of a US-made Tomahawk missile and unexploded cluster bombs that were apparently used in the December 17, 2009 attack on the rural community of Al-Maajala in Yemen’s southern Abyan province.
Here’s more from Amnesty International’s own website about the attack:
Amnesty International has released images of a US-manufactured cruise missile that carried cluster munitions, apparently taken following an attack on an alleged al-Qa’ida training camp in Yemen that killed 41 local residents, including 14 women and 21 children. […]
Shortly after the attack some US media reported alleged statements by unnamed US government sources who said that US cruise missiles launched on presidential orders had been fired at two alleged al-Qa’ida sites in Yemen. […]
The photographs enable the positive identification of damaged missile parts, which appear to be from the payload, mid-body, aft-body and propulsion sections of a BGM-109D Tomahawk land-attack cruise missile.
This type of missile, launched from a warship or submarine, is designed to carry a payload of 166 cluster submunitions (bomblets) which each explode into over 200 sharp steel fragments that can cause injuries up to 150m away. An incendiary material inside the bomblet also spreads fragments of burning zirconium designed to set fire to nearby flammable objects.
A further photograph, apparently taken within half an hour of the others, shows an unexploded BLU 97 A/B submunition itself, the type carried by BGM-109D missiles. These missiles are known to be held only by US forces and Yemeni armed forces are unlikely to be capable of using such a missile. […]
A Yemeni parliamentary committee that investigated the 17 December 2009 attack reported in February that 41 people it described as civilians had been killed. In its report the committee said that on arrival at the scene of the attack in al-Ma’jalah it found that all the homes and their contents were burnt and all that was left were traces of furniture.
It said the committee found traces of blood of the victims and a number of holes in the ground left by the bombings as well as a number of unexploded bombs, and that one survivor told the committee that his family, who were killed although they had committed no crime, were sleeping when the missiles struck on the morning of 17 December 2009.
The images released by Amnesty International of alleged US cruise missiles and cluster munitions used in Yemen can be found here.
Are we reaching to the point where our government considers anyone, including women and children, potential terrorists because of where they reside, as the Israelis do in Gaza? President Obama, as Commander-in-Chief of our armed forces, would have had to give the okay for such an attack with a weapon that is not precise, is not exact, that is intended to kill large numbers of individuals.
I call on the President to immediately answer the question whether he authorized such an attack in violation of international law and simple moral values. You do not murder innocent civilians in a town because your enemy may live there. [deleted — see same diary at Dkos for reason]
Perhaps using cluster bombs against suspected terrorist sites in civilian areas would have been an acceptable policy under former President Bush and Vice President Cheney, who continue to defend torture and an illegal war of aggression against Iraq to this day without any hint of regret or remorse. However,it should never be the policy that a Democratic President adopts. This was certainly not an action I expected a Democratic President to endorse: the use of cluster bombs which he must have known would kill and maim civilians.
And people wonder why US residents irate at the slaughter of innocent Muslims are attempting to join Al Qaeda and related terrorist organizations on Americans after attacks like this. The question must be asked of this administration: what benefit is there to unilaterally killing people in countries where no state of war exists, and with weapons designed to kill as many people as possible, regardless of their connection to alleged terrorists.
In the short term we may have eradicated an Al Qaeda training site. Good for us.
However, it is the long term, that I am concerned about. One of these days we won’t be so lucky when a homegrown terrorist tries to explode a car bomb in Times Square, or attacks some other target of “opportunity.” I wonder if the people murdered at Ft Hood would have been gunned down by Major Hasan if the Bush administration had not adopted torture and promoted a war in Iraq that killed and wounded hundreds of thousands of civilians, including many children.
When we use weapons that are bound to kill people who have nothing to do with those who oppose us, we are no better than base murderers. War does not excuse such actions authorized by our government and carried out by our military. In the end, it will be innocent Americans who will pay the price for these senseless killings. Perhaps your child or mine.
So, President Obama, answer the question: were our armed forces behind the attack on al-Ma’jalah? Did we employ cluster munitions? Is it our policy to continue to employ such weapons regardless of the risk to innocent civilians who are likely to be killed or maimed for life along with any potential militants that may attack America?
If so, I’d like to know your reasons for authorizing such a vicious assault and whether you believe such weapons of mass murder are an appropriate means to assault civilian areas as opposed to military installations.
This is most certainly not the change I voted for. If your administration is responsible, stand up and be accountable for this heinous crime. No more lies or evasions. We had enough of those under the former President.
Wikipedia on BGM-109D Tomahawk cruise missile:
The US has used BLU 97 cluster bomblets in Afghanistan as well. A 2002 article from the UN’s IRIN news service
UN to clear coalition cluster bombs describes this ammunition and the hazards that it presents after the original strike. It is not clear from the report whether the children were killed in the original strike or were killed playing with the unexploded canisters.
The US is placing too much reliance on drone and cruise missile attacks, targeted by intelligence about the presence of al Quaeda at a location. The flaw here is that the intelligence is most often human intelligence from non-US nationals, who are not necessarily committed to US interests. The opportunity for false positive identification of al Quaeda operatives is high enough, but the presence of freelancers and double agents in the intelligence chain of information makes the risk higher.
And the failure of the US to sign key agreements on restraint in using certain types of weapons is undercutting our diplomacy. Refusal to sign and ratify the agreement on cluster munitions, land mine removal, and the International Criminal Court are three that have given the world the impression that the US is interested only in restraints on others and not a regime of effective international law.
The Obama administration, feeling besieged on national security “toughness”, decided to put the military on autopilot, except for one strategy review in Afghanistan. If this doesn’t change shortly, it will turn out to be a major mistake. Part of the issue here is the reluctance of progressives to really look at the nuts and bolts of national security policy and action and figure out how to get from where we are to less dependence on military solutions that don’t work. How exactly does a democratic country deal with a threat like al Quaeda-sponsored terrorism? We better figure this out because non-state political actors (domestic or foreign) who turn to violence and terrorism are increasingly likely as the cost of the coordination of strategy and operation come down through the use of and further deployment of the internet.
“The flaw here is that the intelligence is most often human intelligence from non-US nationals, who are not necessarily committed to US interests. The opportunity for false positive identification of al Quaeda operatives is high enough, but the presence of freelancers and double agents in the intelligence chain of information makes the risk higher.”
That’s ok, we’ve got plenty of tomahawks and hellfire missiles laying around. What’s few wedding parties blown up when you’re fighting terror?
Which is why I subscribe to a similar theory RE: Corporate Executives. I advocate the justice department take the BP executive board into protective custody immediately for the purpose of interdicting an ongoing terroristic enterprise, and to interrogate them pending criminal charges or further rendition. Executives beyond our jurisdiction should be targeted for assassination, by missile if necessary, although hopefully we can get other people’s intelligence apparatus to take credit for it.
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Yemen seems to be a hotspot where the U.S. has focused to counteract Al-Qaeda. For months heavy fighting by government forces with U.S. aid and CIA intelligence. The forces of Saudi Arabia has entered the battle zone along the extensive border. The influx of Somalian refugees has compounded the problems and stability of the Muslim state. Recently, U.S. cruise missile attack caused heavy casualties including 14 Bedouin children.
[Update] More than 120 people were reportedly killed by an airstrike in Yemen’s Saada province — and the Huthi insurgency is blaming the U.S. Air Force. (RT video)
Reports are that 350 al Qaeda are in an inaccessible area of Shabwa, Yemen.
A reliable source, al Tagheer [Arabic]: According to the sources, Aulaqi returned to the area and began practicing refusal to live a normal life with his family which is still up to this moment with him and then started preaching to people in the mosque every Friday and began to recognize a group of young people and meet them.
Also in the area, convicted USS Cole bomber Fahd al Quso. That’s really the news here. The guy already blew up a warship, what’s his follow up going to be? This is the last man standing from the 2000 Malaysia meeting where both the USS Cole bombing and 9/11 were planned. Al Quso is on bin Laden’s short list of trusted lieutenants.
≈ Cross-posted from my diary — Al-Awlaki Family Members Killed [Update] ≈
"But I will not let myself be reduced to silence."Steven D.:
I recommended your TGOS diary as well. Thanks for this. Just because a Democrat is in the WH, we still have to hold our leaders accountable.
“Did US Cluster Bomb Yemeni Children?“
This is nothing new. The U.S. cluster bombed lots and lots of Iraqi children, not to mention Afghan children. One very well documented case was in Hilla, near Babylon, but there are plenty of others. Cluster bombing children is SOP for the U.S.
“Are we reaching to the point where our government considers anyone, including women and children, potential terrorists because of where they reside, as the Israelis do in Gaza?“
Boker tov, Eliahu*! You have been AT that point for a long time.
*Hebrew expression meaning “wake up and smell the coffee”.