Pentagon’s Massive Drone Strikes Kill Over 200 People

Pentagon’s Massive Drone Strikes Kill Over 200 People
Thu Mar 24, 2016 13:53:07

In its second set of mass-casualty drone strikes this month, the Pentagon has killed roughly 200 people in Yemen and Somalia.

On Tuesday, Pentagon spokesman Peter Cook confirmed that the US military had bombed a "training camp" used by "more than 70 AQAP [al-Qaida in the Arabian Peninsula] terrorists."

"We continue to assess the results of the operation, but our initial assessment is that dozens of AQAP fighters have been removed from the battlefield," the spokesman said in a statement.

The Pentagon has not revealed the specific location of the camp and has not released details on possible civilian deaths.

According to local Yemeni medics and officials, at least 50 were killed and another 30 wounded.

"The planes struck as al-Qaeda people stood in line to receive their dinner meal," said one official, speaking on condition of anonymity.

This is the second mass-casualty airstrike conducted by the US military this month. On March 5, the Pentagon killed an estimated 150 people, targeting an al-Shabaab training camp in Somalia.

"We know they were going to be departing the camp and that they posed an imminent threat to US and to Amisom, African Union mission in Somalia forces, that are in Somalia," a Pentagon spokesman said at the time.

"Their removal will degrade al-Shabaab’s ability to meet the group’s objectives in Somalia, which include recruiting new members, establishing bases and planning attacks on US and Amisom forces there", Sputnik reported.

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