Sanaa, December 19: US President Barack Obama has signed the order for a recent military strike on Yemen’s fighters in which scores of civilians, including children, have been killed, a report says.
US Nobel Peace Laurite President Barack Obama has signed the order for a recent military strike on Yemen’s fighters in which scores of civilians, including children, have been killed, a report says.
Upon the orders of Obama, the military warplanes blanketed two camps in the North of the Yemeni capital, Sana’a, Thursday, caliming there were “an imminent attack against a US asset was being planned,” ABC News quoted anonymous administration officials as saying on Friday.
The US air raids were then followed by a Yemeni ground forces incursion.
The attacks led to the death of around 120 people of whom many were civilians including children, the report quoted Yemeni opposition as saying.
Obama also contacted Yemen’s President, Ali Abdullah Saleh, after the blitz in order to “congratulate” him on his efforts against ‘al-Qaeda,’ the US news outlet quoted White House officials as telling reporters earlier.
The latest development comes in the wake of recently intensified attacks on the country’s Houthi fighters in northern Yemen
So far, the US officials have categorically denied any direct involvement in the air strikes on Houthis fighters, alleging they have only targeted growing al-Qaeda training camps in the Persian Gulf state.
However, in a brief reference to Yemen’s efforts to suppress Houthis earlier in December, Obama had pledged support the Yemeni government.
Yemen’s Shia minority have recently slammed foreign military intervention in Yemen and the United Nations’ apathy on the humanitarian situation and the “siege on civilians in northern Yemen.”
——Agencies