Drone Kills Al Qaeda Fighter Linked to Limburg Attack

A wanted al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula operative who was involved in the 2002 bombing of a French oil tanker was killed in a drone strike on Friday. And today, the US launched another strike in Yemen, killing five suspected AQAP fighters.

Yemen's Defense Ministry said that Khaled Batis was one of eight terrorists killed on Aug. 31 when unmanned Predators or Reapers fired several missiles at a car as it traveled in the Hawra district in Hadramout province.

Batis is considered to be the mastermind of the 2002 attack on the French-flagged Limburg, an oil tanker that was transporting crude to Malaysia. The Limburg attack occurred when a small boat laden with explosives rammed into the ship. A Bulgarian crew member was killed and 12 others were wounded in the attack. Batis has been in Yemeni custody, but he escaped from prison last year, according to Reuters.

Batis is the second AQAP operative involved in the Limburg attack to have been killed in a drone strike this year. On Jan. 31, US drones killed Abdul Mun'im Salim al Fatahani near the city of Lawdar in Abyan province. Fatahani was involved in the Limburg attack as well as the suicide attack on the USS Cole in 2000. AQAP said that Fatahani had fought in Iraq and Afghanistan.

US drone strike in Rada'a

On the same day that the death of Batis was announced, the US launched another strike against AQAP in Yemen. Today's strike killed five suspected AQAP fighters as they traveled in the town of Rada'a, a city in Baydah province that was under AQAP control earlier this year, Reuters reported.

The exact target of today's strike has not been disclosed; no senior AQAP leaders have been reported killed in the attack.

On May 28, the US targeted Kaid al Dhahab, AQAP's emir in the province of Baydah, and his brother Nabil, who is also a senior leader in the terror group, in a strike in Rada'a.

US strikes in Yemen

The US is known to have carried out 31 airstrikes against AQAP in Yemen so far this year; one in January, six in March, six more in April, nine in May, two in June, one in July, and five in August. Other recent airstrikes are believed to have been carried out by the US also, but little evidence has emerged to directly link the attacks to the US.

Since December 2009, the CIA and the US military's Joint Special Operations Command are known to have conducted at least 46 air and missile strikes inside Yemen, including today's strike. [For more information on the US airstrikes in Yemen, see LWJ report, Charting the data for US air strikes in Yemen, 2002 - 2012.]

The pace of the US airstrikes increased as AQAP and its political front, Ansar al Sharia, took over vast areas of southern Yemen starting at the end of May 2011. AQAP seized control of the cities and towns of Zinjibar, Al Koud, Jaar, and Shaqra in Abyan province, and Azzan in Shabwa province.

In May of this year, the Yemeni military launched an offensive to retake the cities and towns held by AQAP. Hundreds of AQAP fighters, Yemeni soldiers, and civilians have been reported killed during fighting that liberated Zinjibar, Jaar, Shaqra, and Azzan.

Since the beginning of May 2011, the US is known to have carried out 41 airstrikes in Yemen. This year, the US appears to be targeting both AQAP leaders and foot soldiers in an effort to support Yemeni military operations against the terror group. AQAP had taken control of vast areas in southern Yemen and had been expanding operations against the government, with raids on military bases in locations previously thought to be outside the terror group's control.

In addition to Batis and Fatahani, two other senior AQAP operatives have been killed in the 31 strikes so far this year. The most recent strike that killed a senior AQAP leader took place on May 6, when the US killed Fahd al Quso in a drone attack in Shabwa province. Quso, who has been described as AQAP's external operations chief, was involved in numerous terrorist attacks, including the 2000 suicide attack on the USS Cole that killed 17 US sailors. The US obtained the information leading to Quso from a Saudi operative who had penetrated AQAP.

The US also killed Mohammed Saeed al Umda (a.k.a. Ghareeb al Taizi) in an April 22 drone strike on a convoy in the Al Samadah area of Marib province. Prior to the downfall of the Taliban regime in 2001, he had attended the Al Farouq military training camp in Afghanistan. Umda served as a member of Osama bin Laden's bodyguard in Afghanistan before returning to Yemen, and was involved in the October 2002 suicide attack on the French oil tanker Limburg. He escaped from a Yemeni jail in 2006.

US intelligence officials believe that al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula poses a direct threat to the homeland. The latest AQAP plot against the West, involving an underwear bomb that is nearly undetectable and was to be detonated on an airliner, was foiled earlier this year. The terror group has planned multiple attacks against targets in the US. A strike in Yemen last year killed both Anwar al Awlaki, the radical, US-born cleric who plotted attacks against the US, and Samir Khan, another American who served as a senior AQAP propagandist.



Read more: http://www.longwarjournal.org/archives/2012/09/us_drone_strike_kill_13.php#ixzz25N8VCtiR

Released by researchers at Stanford and New York University law schools, the study recommends the U.S. conduct “a fundamental re-evaluation of current targeted killing practices,” which has led to 49 civilian deaths for every one known terrorist killed. In a region where the U.S. should be trying to win over supporters from al Qaeda and Taliban influence, drones are traumatizing and alienating Pakistanis.

Despite the Obama administration’s public statements that the strikes have contributed to either “no” or “single digit” civilian casualties, The Bureau of Investigative Journalism found that from June 2004 through mid-September 2012, drone strikes killed between 2,562 and 3,325 people in Pakistan, including 176 children.

If drone strikes had proven effective in protecting U.S. national security interests, perhaps the civilian toll would draw less condemnation, but the New America Foundation recently reported that the number of “high level” targets killed as a percentage of total casualties is only 2%.

As President Obama prepares for the upcoming presidential debates and foreign policy questions to arise, his coveted drone policy will likely face the chopping block. The New York Times and Associated Press have both reported that President Obama acts as “the final decision maker” in drone strikes targeting individuals, placing the burden for answers squarely on the Commander-in-Chief.

Bird i know how much you love Drone bombings (despite the fact they kill more civilians than terrorist targets at a 50 : 1 ratio)

so im getting this for you for christmas next year

oggy420 wrote:

Bird i know how much you love Drone bombings (despite the fact they kill more civilians than terrorist targets at a 50 : 1 ratio)

so im getting this for you for christmas next year

holy shit Oggy your so full of shit its comical

they kill civilians at a 50:1 level hahaha
YOU REALIZE THE PERSON WHO DID THAT RESEARCH HAS BEEN BUSTED AS A FRAUD. they counted taliban, jaamat islamiya and multiple other terrorist fighters as civilians they only counted al Qaeda. If you want actual non fantasy bullshit numbers here ya go.

The US ramped up the number of strikes in July 2008, and has continued to regularly hit at Taliban and Al Qaeda targets inside Pakistan. There have been 332 strikes total since the program began in 2004; 322 of those strikes have taken place since January 2008.



Since 2006, there have been 2,480 leaders and operatives from Taliban, Al Qaeda, and allied extremist groups killed and 153 civilians killed. Data for 2004 and 2005 are not available at this time.

50:1 its sad you believe half the bullshit you spout

The US has now launched seven drone strikes in Pakistan this year. Four of the strikes have taken place in North Waziristan, and the other three in South Waziristan, another safe haven for al Qaeda, the Taliban, and other terror groups.

Four senior and midlevel al Qaeda and Taliban leaders are reported to have been killed in the seven strikes since the beginning of the New Year. The US killed Mullah Nazir, the leader of a Taliban group in South Waziristan who was closely allied with Bahadar, al Qaeda, and the Afghan Taliban, in a strike on Jan. 3. In a second strike on Jan. 3, the US killed Faisal Khan, commander in the Movement of the Taliban in Pakistan commander. In one of two strikes on Jan. 6, the US killed Wali Mohammed, a Taliban commander who is said to have directed suicide operations for the Movement of the Taliban in Pakistan. And in one of the two strikes on Jan. 8, an al Qaeda leader known as Sheikh Yasin Al Kuwaiti is reported to have been killed.



Read more: http://www.longwarjournal.org/archives/2013/01/us_drones_strike_aga_4.php#ixzz2IHLzx1O2

i guess i didn't realize that Stanford, NYU, The Bureau of Investigative Journalism, & the New America Foundation were all "busted as a fraud".

exactly where do you get your numbers Bird? Whitehouse.gov?

A recent exposé in the New York Times partially helped to explain the White House’s astonishingly low estimates by revealing that the Obama administration considers “all military-age males [killed] in a strike zone” to be “combatants . . . unless there is explicit intelligence posthumously proving them innocent.”[20] How the US would go about gathering such posthumous evidence is unclear, in part because drone victims’ bodies are frequently dismembered, mutilated, and burned beyond recognition.[21] And importantly, there is little evidence that US authorities have engaged in any effort to visit drone strike sites or to investigate the backgrounds of those killed.[22] Indeed, there is little to suggest that the US regularly takes steps even to identify all of those killed or wounded.

Consistent with an apparent lack of diligence in discovering the identities of those killed, there is also evidence that the US has tried to undermine individuals and groups that are working to discover more about those killed. In August 2011, the New York Times first reported on efforts by Pakistani human rights lawyer Shahzad Akbar and by TBIJ, an independent non-profit news reporting agency based at City University in London,[23] to document civilian drone casualties. The Times reported then that “anonymous US officials” accused Akbar of “working to discredit the drone program at the behest of . . . ISI, the Pakistani spy service.”[24] The Times further reported that these officials argued that the Bureau’s data were “suspect” because of links to Akbar.[25] TBIJ released a report a few months later on the US practice of targeting rescuers and funeral-goers.[26] Another anonymous official dismissed the report’s findings with the statement, “[l]et’s be under no illusions—there are a number of elements who would like nothing more than to malign these efforts and help Al Qaeda succeed.”[27] The US has never provided any evidence that might link Akbar to the ISI, or that might justify its allegation against TBIJ, relying instead on mainstream media sources to re-publish serious but anonymous accusations made by its own officials.[28]

Even before the Obama administration’s novel definition of a “combatant” was revealed,[29] a number of journalists who regularly cover drone strikes already recognized that the sweeping official claims of all-militant casualties were likely untrue.[30] Nonetheless, most major Western and Pakistani news agencies still tend to rely on anonymous government sources and to report that strikes have killed “militants” or “suspected militants.”[31] Some of the media agencies update their reports later to reflect contrary information if and when it emerges, but others, including major wire services, have at times let their initial reports stand even after credible accounts of civilian casualties have subsequently come to light.[32]

50 to 1 is a hard to believe ratio.

I am against drone attacks however, and I am sure civilians are dieing. And I agree with the sentiment that we should be trying to win these people over, not killing civilians.

oggy420 wrote:

A recent exposé in the New York Times partially helped to explain the White House’s astonishingly low estimates by revealing that the Obama administration considers “all military-age males [killed] in a strike zone” to be “combatants . . . unless there is explicit intelligence posthumously proving them innocent.”[20] How the US would go about gathering such posthumous evidence is unclear, in part because drone victims’ bodies are frequently dismembered, mutilated, and burned beyond recognition.[21] And importantly, there is little evidence that US authorities have engaged in any effort to visit drone strike sites or to investigate the backgrounds of those killed.[22] Indeed, there is little to suggest that the US regularly takes steps even to identify all of those killed or wounded.

Dang that liberal media.

look im not gonna say that 50 to 1 is exact, but i don't believe for a second that we are only getting the bad guys. Innocent men, women, and children who have nothing to do with terrorism are being murdered every day in multiple countries.

"only" bad guys? No chance.

Birdofthad wrote:

The US has now launched seven drone strikes in Pakistan this year. Four of the strikes have taken place in North Waziristan, and the other three in South Waziristan, another safe haven for al Qaeda, the Taliban, and other terror groups.

Four senior and midlevel al Qaeda and Taliban leaders are reported to have been killed in the seven strikes since the beginning of the New Year. The US killed Mullah Nazir, the leader of a Taliban group in South Waziristan who was closely allied with Bahadar, al Qaeda, and the Afghan Taliban, in a strike on Jan. 3. In a second strike on Jan. 3, the US killed Faisal Khan, commander in the Movement of the Taliban in Pakistan commander. In one of two strikes on Jan. 6, the US killed Wali Mohammed, a Taliban commander who is said to have directed suicide operations for the Movement of the Taliban in Pakistan. And in one of the two strikes on Jan. 8, an al Qaeda leader known as Sheikh Yasin Al Kuwaiti is reported to have been killed.



Read more: http://www.longwarjournal.org/archives/2013/01/us_drones_strike_aga_4.php#ixzz2IHLzx1O2

Why would i read more?

The Long War Journal does not make its data available in a strike-by-strike format. Instead, it publishes blog posts about new strikes soon after they are initially reported, and maintains a series of regularly updated statistical graphs.[86] The strike information in its blog posts is based on reports by major media outlets and on the Journal’s own investigations,[87] which appear to consist primarily of conversations with unnamed “US intelligence officials.”[88] One analysis of drone tallies asserts that The Long War Journal’s methodology places great weight on US intelligence sources, especially when distinguishing between Taliban/Al Qaeda and civilian casualties.[89] According to The Long War Journal’s managing editor, Bill Roggio, for the purposes of categorizing strike deaths, all those killed are counted as “Taliban/Al Qaeda” unless “they are identified as civilians.”[90]

This raises two major concerns about the accuracy of The Long War Journal’s statistical claims. First, because The Long War Journal does not make its data visible in a strike-by-strike format, it is impossible to tell whether and where its editors have logged credibly reported civilian casualties, or to tell whether they update older strike data regularly to reflect new information as it comes to light. The only strike-specific information available on its website comes in the form of blog posts written by managing editor Bill Roggio.[91] Those posts usually appear within twenty-four hours of each new strike, citing initial reports from major media outlets that almost invariably assert that only “Taliban/Al Qaeda” were killed.[92] Second, The Long War Journal’s practice of labeling all drone victims as “Taliban/Al Qaeda” unless they are specifically identified as civilians,[93] combined with its reliance on demonstrably untrustworthy government reports corroborated by comments from anonymous US intelligence sources, raises questions about whether its drone strike statistics underestimate civilian deaths.

thats one way of saying you are killing bad guys. Just say "everyone" killed was a terrorist.

Bird if civilians deaths don't matter, why not just nuke the entire middle east? afterall they are all terrorists according to your numbers ...

civilian deaths do matter but Im sorry if Baitullah Mehsud and Mullah Nazir had people with them but FUCK THEM

you realize your bullshit claims dont count Baitullah Mehsud or Mullah Nazir as enemies but as civilians??

haha your a tool oggy
longwar journal issues strike by strike update EVERY DAY

over 12 children were in the Bin Laden compound, we dont send Navy Seal teams in for just anybody normally we drop a hellfire or reaper missile on them.
TOugh shit if you happen to be with someone who deserves to die thats their fault not ours

There the name calling again. No shocker, a lefty can't debate without it. Straight out if the rule book.

Farmer1906 wrote:

There the name calling again. No shocker, a lefty can't debate without it. Straight out if the rule book.

I debate all day without it, so save the generalizations.

sorry farmer ive just had it with all of yalls were taking our country back, facism/socialism.i dont know the difference lets add communism bullshit

yall lost get the fuck over it

add in im actually defending a Bush administration policy so tough shit

Farmer1906 wrote:

There the name calling again. No shocker, a lefty can't debate without it. Straight out if the rule book.

so Farmer in you opinion Baitulah Mehsud should be counted as a civilian and not an enemy?

farmer youve called me a cunt for posting anti romney threads so grow some balls

There it is again. I don't care what you are defending it not. Grow up and learn to have a real debate.