Half of the 52 killed by the banned cluster munitions were women and children

A report by the human rights group Amnesty International linked the U.S. military to a missile attack in south Yemen on Dec. 17, 2009. The cruise missile attack resulted in the deaths of 55 people, including 14 women and 21 children, according to an investigation by a Yemeni parliamentary committee. The committee has called for the perpetrators of the crime to be brought to justice.

Coverup

When the airstrikes occurred, the New York Times reported, “Yemen escalated its campaign against Al Qaeda with major airstrikes on Dec. 17 and last Thursday that killed more than 60 militants.” Now it is clear that the U.S. and its allies in the Yemeni government covered up the truth, which is that the U.S. launched an attack that resulted in the deaths of dozens of civilians. Those who survived the attacks denied any links with Al Qaeda.

The same article from the Times also revealed that the Pentagon was spending $70 million over the next year to train Yemeni military forces in counter-insurgency and stepping up the involvement of U.S. Special Forces in the country. The U.S. has been fighting a covert war in Yemen under the guise of the ‘war on terror.’ The goal is to wipe out forces who are opposed to U.S. domination of the Middle East. The U.S. has also stepped up its Predator drone attacks on anti-imperialists in the country.

Use of banned munitions

The photos released by Amnesty International show the wreckage of a BGM-109D Tomahawk cruise missile, which can be launched from a warship or submarine. Amnesty described the missile:

This type of missile, launched from a warship or submarine, is designed to carry a payload of 166 cluster submunitions (bomblets) which each explode into over 200 sharp steel fragments that can cause injuries up to 150m away. An incendiary material inside the bomblet also spreads fragments of burning zirconium designed to set fire to nearby flammable objects.

Photographs released by Amnesty show unexploded bomblets. Both the U.S. and Yemen refuse to sign the Convention on Cluster Munitions, which places a comprehensive ban on the weapons. Cluster bombs have been linked to tens of thousands of civilian deaths.

Poverty in Yemen

While the Pentagon spends hundreds of billions of dollars to fight the ‘war on terror’ in Yemen, Somalia, Iraq and Afghanistan, the peoples of those countries continue to suffer from dire poverty. In Yemen, one in three people (7 million Yemenis) are starving and unable to find enough food to live a healthy and productive life, according to the United Nations. 2.7 million are classified as ‘food insecure,’ which means that they spend one third of their income on bread.

Thus while Yemeni people starve, the U.S. and its allies in the Yemeni government wage a dirty war costing hundreds of millions of dollars with the aim of maintaining control over the Middle East.

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