A drone strike on a wedding convoy in Yemen killed 17 people, mostly civilians, medical and security sources said on Friday, adding grist to mounting criticism of the US drone war.
“Some” of the dead in on Thursday’s strike near the central town of Radaa were suspected members of Al-Qaeda, but the rest were all civilians with no connection to the jihadist network, a security official said.
The death toll from the two-missile strike rose to 17 overnight, a medical source in Radaa said. Two of the dead whose names were released — Saleh al-Tays and Abdullah al-Tays — had figured in the past on Yemeni Government lists of wanted Al-Qaeda suspects.
But most of those killed were civilian members of the Al-Tays and Al-Ameri clans headed to the wedding, the security official. He said one of the rockets scored a direct hit on a vehicle carrying at least 10 passengers. The other struck near the convoy.
The US military operates all unmanned aircraft flying over Yemen in support of Sanaa’s campaign against Al-Qaeda and has killed dozens of militants in a sharply intensified campaign this year.
Yemen is the ancestral home of Osama bin laden and the home base of Al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP), which the US views as the global jehadist network’s most dangerous franchise. But critics say the drone strikes have claimed numerous civilian lives and demanded an end to the secrecy surrounding their use.