The US provided firepower and intelligence to help the Yemeni government launch a series of deadly raids against suspected al-Qaeda bases in the country, the New York Times has reported.
Barack Obama, the US president approved the military and intelligence support after receiving a request from the Yemeni government, the newspaper reported late on Friday, citing officials familiar with the operations.
Those killed and arrested in Arhab "planned to strike at schools as well as interests at home and abroad," Yemen's interior ministry said on Thursday, without elaborating.
Residents of Abyan said that there was no al-Qaeda training camp in the area and that the raids had destroyed several homes.
Abbas al-Assal, a local human rights activist who was at the scene, said 64 people were killed, including 23 children and 17 women.
"The government wants to show the world that it is serious in pursuing al-Qaeda elements and that the south of Yemen is a refuge for al-Qaeda. That is not true at all," al-Assal told the Associated Press by telephone.
Ali Mohammed Mansour, gave similar casualty figures, and said that he helped bury the dead in a mass grave.
http://english.aljazeera.net/news/middleeast/2009/12/2009121954017137936.html
Obama the Nobel Peace Prize Winner, now just another who kills innocent children and woman. Guess all that talk about sitting down and working out differences kind of got thrown out the window.
Barack Obama, the US president approved the military and intelligence support after receiving a request from the Yemeni government, the newspaper reported late on Friday, citing officials familiar with the operations.
Those killed and arrested in Arhab "planned to strike at schools as well as interests at home and abroad," Yemen's interior ministry said on Thursday, without elaborating.
Residents of Abyan said that there was no al-Qaeda training camp in the area and that the raids had destroyed several homes.
Abbas al-Assal, a local human rights activist who was at the scene, said 64 people were killed, including 23 children and 17 women.
"The government wants to show the world that it is serious in pursuing al-Qaeda elements and that the south of Yemen is a refuge for al-Qaeda. That is not true at all," al-Assal told the Associated Press by telephone.
Ali Mohammed Mansour, gave similar casualty figures, and said that he helped bury the dead in a mass grave.
http://english.aljazeera.net/news/middleeast/2009/12/2009121954017137936.html
Obama the Nobel Peace Prize Winner, now just another who kills innocent children and woman. Guess all that talk about sitting down and working out differences kind of got thrown out the window.
