Outraged by the last US-led drone blunder, tribal leaders and relatives to the deceased called on the coalition government to how contrition before such aberration and senseless violence.
On Thursday, a little over a week after the Defence Ministry was targeted by armed militants, officials had to reluctantly confirm that a drone had mistakenly targeted a wedding convoy in the province of Baydha. At the time, Reuters quoted an official as saying, “An air strike missed its target and hit a wedding car convoy, ten people were killed immediately and another five who were injured died after being admitted to the hospital.”
15 people were killed during the airstrike.
While government officials have tried to justify the strike by stressing that al-Qaeda militants had been used civilians as human shield, the families of the victims have demanded to be appropriately compensated for their loss and immeasurable grief.
Saba (state news agency) wrote, quoting a security committee statement, "On board the vehicle were top leaders who plotted several terrorist attacks against the armed forces, police, civilians and vital government installations.”
Keen to defuse popular anger, military officials confirmed this Saturday that the coalition government had already paid the families an estimated $140 000, notwithstanding traditional gifts, such as guns as per tribal customs.
While families might be willing for now to leave the matter to rest in order to rebuild their lives and move away from such tragedy, rights activists both in and out of Yemen have warned they would not go away.
"Even if it turns out that this was a case of killing based on mistaken identity or dodgy intelligence, whoever was responsible needs to own up to the error and come clean about what happened in this incident," said Philip Luther, Amnesty International's Middle East and North Africa director.