Page 247 - What Kind of Yemen ?
P. 247
Adnan Oktar
(Harun Yahya)
Van Der Klaauw also reported that 120,000 people have had to flee
the country as refugees, while 2.3 million people have had to leave
their homes and lands. The number of human rights violations since
the start of the war exceeds 8,800. (1)
According to U.N. High Commission for Human Rights
spokesman Rupert Colville, more than 2,300 civilians lost their lives
between March and October 2015: Again, according to Colville, two-
thirds of civilians in that time frame were killed as a result of air
strikes. Colville says that this level shows that something is badly
amiss and that the requisite caution is not being taken. (2)Another
recent example of the wide-ranging civilian losses is as follows:
Last September, at least 130 Yemeni citizens were reported to have
lost their lives in an aerial attack on the town of Mokha. Hassan Bouce-
nine, the Yemeni head of mission at Doctors without Frontiers, stated
that he was absolutely unable to attach any meaning to the attack, and
that the target was not a military one, but explicitly a house where a
wedding was taking place. (3)
The policy of the U.S., which at first sight appears to be supporting
the Sunni Arab coalition, is one of the striking aspects of the war in
Yemen.
Although the countries in the coalition are not openly involved in
the fighting, the U.S. is one of the powers that has long been staging
military operations in Yemen. Wishing to prevent the strengthening of
al-Qaeda in Yemen in the wake of the Arab Spring, the U.S. stepped up
unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) attacks, thus intending to reduce al-
Qaeda's room to maneuver to a minimum. Intense aerial bombings
were carried out in those parts of Yemen where al-Qaeda was strong.
However, rather than achieving U.S. aims, these attacks made the
organization look as though they had been wronged and this rein-
forced opposition to the U.S. among local people.
After October 2014, when the Houthis initiated their policy of
expansion toward the capital, Sana'a, the U.S. made al-Qaeda a con-
stant target of UAV attacks and even backed the Houthi advance.
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