US ‘expands Yemen drone strikes policy’

Barack Obama has approved a new policy shift which allows the Central Intelligence Agency and the US military to launch drone attacks in Yemen when the identity of those who could be killed is not known, according to US media reports.

Some congressional officials have expressed concern over the use of such signature strikes, stating that they raise the likelihood of killing fighters who may not be involved in plots either to do with attacks against the US, or affiliated with al-Qaeda, potentially angering the local population and pushing them to join in the struggle against the US.

The Wall Street Journal quotes a US official as saying “Every Yemeni is armed, so how can they differentiate between suspected militants and armed Yemenis?”

what the fuuuuuuuuuuuuuck? how is this even a thing?

murdering people when you don’t even know who they are??

The World Press Photo of the year was won by Spanish photographer Samuel Arandaon while on assignment for The New York Times. His winning image shows a woman holding a wounded relative during protests against President Saleh in Sana’a, on 15 October 2011. One judge described the photograph taken during the ongoing Arab Spring uprising as “a poignant, compassionate moment, the human consequence of an enormous event”

See the others here

Anti-government protesters attend the Iftar meal in Sanaa, Yemen, on the first day of Ramadan [Yahya Arhab/EPA]

from Al Jazeera’s In Pictures for the start of Ramadan. Ramadan Mubarak!