US Targets Yemen Rulers’ Rivals
The quickening pace of the Obama administration’s drone war in Yemen is causing U.S. officials to lump together the country’s many factions in a trend that further weakens their legal justification for extra-judicial assassinations. - The drone war has escalated dramatically since the Obama administration helped broker a political transition bringing the former puppet dictator’s deputy, Abdu Rabu Mansour Hadi, to power. Hadi is reportedly more willing to approve U.S. airstrikes than his predecessor and he continues to receive significant aid in return. “As the pace quickens and the targets expand,” the Los Angeles Times reports, “the distinction may be blurring between operations targeting militants who want to attack Americans and those aimed at fighters seeking to overthrow the Yemeni government.”