“Yemen Strikes May Target Top al Qaeda Leaders”
“Everything We Know So Far About Drone Strikes”
The first article explains some of the reasons for the US’s involvement in Yemen. Along with the Yemeni armed forces conducting ground strikes, the US drone strikes in Yemen were meant to target various high profile leaders of al Qaeda. On the weekend of April 14, 2014, 65 al Qaeda militants were killed during the attacks along the Arabian peninsula. Some of those that were targeted were Nasir al Wuhayshi, the leader of the Yemen branch of al Qaeda, and Ibrahim al Alsiri, a bomb developer who has been linked to various attacks on US airliners as well as oil and gas reserves. Alsiri has been developing various new types of bombs that are able to bypass security checkpoints, such as shoe bombs. Due to his new developments Alsiri has been labeled as a direct threat to the United States.
Suicide Bombers
The second article talks about the advacement of technology and usage of drone strikes since they were first implimented. The first drone strike was issued in 2002 and have been used ever since. The rapid increase in use was conducted by President Bush in 2008 and continued by Obama. Since the 9/11 attacks, an estimated 95 percent of target killings have been conducted by drone strikes. Drone strikes are used by both the military and the CIA, both have admitted that they do not always know who they are attacking. A joke within the CIA was if a group of three men are doing jumping jacks than its a terrorist camp.
These two articles helped answer some initial questions that I had regarding airstrikes over the Middle East. They talked about who the US is targeting, along with the reason for their involvement. They claim that the threats that they are identifying need to be targeted and by using drones they are able to with out putting a soldier in harms way. The cameras mounted on the drones also allow the US to identify new threats and for other types of recon.
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