12-year old boy killed in US drone strike in Yemen

Middle East, News, US February 7, 2015 , by IRIA No Comments

Relatives describe Mohammed as a joyful 12 year old, enjoying school. When he was killed in a latest drone strike in Yemen, authorities listed him as a ‘militant’. The family previously lost Mohammed’s father and brother in a similar attack.

Mohammed Saleh Qayed Taeiman had been among the three killed in the drone strike last week, according to the Yemeni National Organization for Drone Victims (NODV). It also said that previous US drone strikes had killed Mohammed’s father and his brother in 2011, and in a separate attack, another brother had been injured.

They are among the 424 Yemeni people, 8 of whom are children, who have been killed since drone strikes began in the region in 2002, according to a a recent report by the Bureau of Investigative Journalism.

NODV said that one of the other victims was a farm worker named Abdallah Khaled Aziz al-Zindani , married to a woman from the Taeiman family, which was due to meet with other families in the area to discuss their response to the US drone strikes.

Yemeni officials initially said that three men believed to have been Al-Qaeda militants were killed in a car traveling to Ma’rib province. A tribal leader told Reuters that Taeiman had been an Al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP) militant.

Mohammed’s cousin Hussein Taeiman, in Cairo spoke exclusively to RT. RT host Dan Swann asked him whether Mohammed was a militant.

“No, no, no he’s a child. Mohammed was like any child, he was studying in school and staying in house,” said Taeiman. “He was like any kid. His father was killed about four years ago. He was eight then and didn’t understand. He lost his father’s love and upbringing but didn’t have vengeful feelings. He was just a child. Mohammed was very joyful. The happiest kid in the village.”

“He was murdered by US drones for no reason…he was in sixth grade in primary school. What would he do? No one had a legal justification to get him killed.”

Drones strikes in the region are carried out by the CIA as part of its counterterrorism operation and by the Pentagon as part of its secretive special forces outfit – Joint Special Operations Command (JSOC). This was the first strike since the beginning of the year.

The Bureau of Investigative Journalism (BIJ) compiles data on military strikes. Included in the data are separate casualty counts for combatants, civilians and children.

The first US strike in Yemen was on November 3, 2002 – an isolated operation under the Bush Administration. The next strike didn’t happen again until May 5, 2011 – under the Obama Administration.

Since 2011 there have been at least 103 confirmed US targeted killing operations, 88 of which have been carried out with drones, according to BIJ. Fifteen of the strikes fall into other categories, such as cruise missile strikes and special forces ground raids.