Sanaa accused of killing 62 civilians in anti-Qaeda raids
YEMEN - 18 DECEMBER 2009
An exiled southern leader on Friday accused the Yemeni authorities of having killed more than 60 civilians in air strikes Sanaa said targeted an Al-Qaeda training camp in the Abyan region.
The raids on Thursday caused "a large number of civilian casualties -- dead and wounded -- including women, children and elderly, including 62 deaths who have been identified," Ali Salem al-Baid said in a statement.
"Forty-seven women and children are among the dead," Baid said, after what he branded "a massacre that is a war crime and crime against humanity."
Yemen's defence ministry said the security forces had killed at least 28 Al-Qaeda militants and captured 17 others in operations backed by air strikes on Thursday in and around Sanaa as well as in the southern region of Abyan.
The ministry said a site used as a training camp for Al-Qaeda in the Abyan village of Al-Maajala was among targets hit. "Between 24 and 30 Al-Qaeda militants, including foreigners, were killed while training," it said.
But witnesses said civilians were among about 50 people killed. Several fighter planes took part in the raid which hit a civilian area by mistake, a local official in Abyan told AFP, requesting anonymity.
Abyan, part of the former South Yemen republic, has become a regrouping base for Islamist militants, according to the authorities.
But Baid denied the allegation as "totally false" and insisted Al-Qaeda had "no presence in the south."
South Yemen was independent from the time of Britain's pullout in 1967 until the country was united in 1990. The south seceded in 1994, before quickly being vanquished by troops from the former North Yemen.
Separatists are again demanding independence, complaining of discrimination by northerners and a lack of financial aid.
Source: AFP
YEMEN - 18 DECEMBER 2009
An exiled southern leader on Friday accused the Yemeni authorities of having killed more than 60 civilians in air strikes Sanaa said targeted an Al-Qaeda training camp in the Abyan region.
The raids on Thursday caused "a large number of civilian casualties -- dead and wounded -- including women, children and elderly, including 62 deaths who have been identified," Ali Salem al-Baid said in a statement.
"Forty-seven women and children are among the dead," Baid said, after what he branded "a massacre that is a war crime and crime against humanity."
Yemen's defence ministry said the security forces had killed at least 28 Al-Qaeda militants and captured 17 others in operations backed by air strikes on Thursday in and around Sanaa as well as in the southern region of Abyan.
The ministry said a site used as a training camp for Al-Qaeda in the Abyan village of Al-Maajala was among targets hit. "Between 24 and 30 Al-Qaeda militants, including foreigners, were killed while training," it said.
But witnesses said civilians were among about 50 people killed. Several fighter planes took part in the raid which hit a civilian area by mistake, a local official in Abyan told AFP, requesting anonymity.
Abyan, part of the former South Yemen republic, has become a regrouping base for Islamist militants, according to the authorities.
But Baid denied the allegation as "totally false" and insisted Al-Qaeda had "no presence in the south."
South Yemen was independent from the time of Britain's pullout in 1967 until the country was united in 1990. The south seceded in 1994, before quickly being vanquished by troops from the former North Yemen.
Separatists are again demanding independence, complaining of discrimination by northerners and a lack of financial aid.
Source: AFP
