Trump’s First Military Operation Kills 8-Year-Old Girl, 6 Years After Obama Killed Her Brother
An eight year old girl named Nawar Al-Awlaki was shot and killed on Sunday in the rural Yakla district of al-Bayda province, in southern Yemen.
30
January, 2017
Nawar
was killed in President Trump’s first military raid, resulting
in the deaths of 30 Yemenis, including 10 women and children.
One US commando was killed and
three were wounded.
The
US military said 14 Al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula, or AQAP,
fighters, including a senior leader named Abdulraoof al-Dhahab,
had been killed in the raid and another two were killed in a drone
strike on central Yemen later in
the day.
Trump,
who recently put a block on Yeminis travelling to the US, called the
operation a success but said he was “saddened”
to hear of the death of the commando who ‘“was taken in our fight
against the evil of radical Islamic terrorism.”
Nawar
is the daughter of US-born (Las
Cruces, New Mexico) Yemeni imam and Islamic lecturer, Anwar al-Awlaki
who was killed by an American drone strike in September 2011. U.S.
government officials claim he
was a senior recruiter and motivator who was involved in planning
terrorist operations for the Islamist militant group al-Qaeda.
Anwar al-Awlaki, father of Abdulrahman (16) and Nora (8). All 3 separately targeted and killed in American drone strikes.
Al-Awlaqi had
never been charged with, let alone convicted of, any crime.
The assassination created widespread debate. The American Civil
Liberties Union, sued Obama
to restrain him from the assassination.
Two
weeks later, Al-Awlaqi’s 16-year-old son, Abdulrahman al-Awlaki,
a U.S.
citizen who was born in Denver, Colorado,
was also killed by
a CIA-led drone strike in Yemen while eating dinner at an outdoor
restaurant.
This is Abdulrahman Anwar al-Awlaki. He kinda looks like me. He was a 16 year old US CITIZEN killed by a @BarackObama drone strike #yeswedid
He
was not suspected of any terrorist activity. He had a Facebook page
showing his life, his hobbies and interests, just like many other
American teens do.
Note
that Abdulrahman wasn’t killed in the same drone strike as his
father. He was hit by a drone strike elsewhere, his father already
dead. He
hadn’t seen his father in two years and
had snuck out of the house tofind him. Anwar
knew he was on Obama’s kill list and was in hiding.
It
is unknown whether the U.S. targeted the teenager or whether he was
merely “collateral damage.” The Obama administration refused to
say. Indeed, it refused even to admit it did this, or that it
had a drone program engaged in military action in Yemen. All shrouded
in total secrecy.
This
could potentially happen to you. Presidents
have the power to order drone strikes on US citizens abroadwithout
charges or trial. You may think that because you live in the US
and not some far flung corner of the globe that few people have head
of, that you are safe from drone assassination. You are wrong.
Using lethal military
force against an American in their home country is legal.
The
government must be held accountable when it carries out such killings
in violation of the Constitution and international law.
The
United States continues to
carry out unlawful targeted killings in Pakistan, Somalia, Yemen and
elsewhere.
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