Drone Strikes in Counterterrorism Operations: An Analysis with Emphasis on Yemen

Subject Areas :

Mohsen Karami Navehkesh ¹ , Abbas Alipour ²

1 - M.A. graduate in international relations, Kharazmi University
2 - Faculty member, Imam Hossein University

Received: 2014-04-23 Accepted : 2014-06-06 Published : 2014-06-01

Keywords: Yemen, Drones, Obama's strategy for combating terrorism, Al-Qaeda,

Abstract :

Abstract                Over the past year in restive Yemen, in Abyan and Shabwa provincial regions, it was declared that fighters of Al-Qaeda, who were related to Saudi Arabia, were hiding and accumulating their power which resulted in shaping new groups such as Ansar al-Sharia. In this regard, the above-mentioned group, before being destroyed by Yemeni military in summer 2012, was attacked by unmanned drones, in line with Obama‘s counterterrorism strategy. The present study discusses whether the use of unmanned drones can help promote regional stability and security or it only serves as a new way to expand and extend extremism? We argue that the drone strikes in so called counterterrorism operations in tribal Pakistani areas and expanding these operations to Yemen has helped extremism and rise of bloody conflicts in the region and Al-Qaeda and Taliban have used this opportunity for more destabilizing the region. This indicates that Obama's counterterrorism and military strategy does not work.