Today in Yemen, 13 people were killed in what was reportedly an erroneous drone strike by the American government. According to Yemeni officials, a caravan was traveling in central Yemen on its way to a wedding when it was hit by missiles fired from a drone, leaving bodies burned and vehicles ablaze in the middle of the road.
Intelligence sources speaking to the AP attributed the incident to a drone that mistook the party for a convoy of al-Qaeda fighters, while another said that al-Qaeda fighters were believed to be traveling with the group. American officials have a demonstrated history of underreporting the true number of civilians killed by drones across the Middle East.
This past Monday, three people were killed by a drone in east Yemen, while in 2008, 63 people died in a drone strike that hit a wedding in Afghanistan. In May, CODEPINK's Medea Benjamin challenged President Obama's record of drone strikes during a national security speech.
We can at least say this much for Amazon's drone delivery program: it won't mistakenly murder a dozen civilians.