Offensive against Abayan province

According to media reports, Yemeni forces have started a new offensive against militants in Abayan province, Yemen under the cover of US drones. Some 25,000 soldiers are participating in the offensive, which will continue for several days. Several thousand volunteers are also taking part in offensive. Yemen is seeing its worst-ever violence and suicide attacks these days, with the worst incident in the heart of Sana’a killing more than hundred soldiers a week ago. 

Unfortunately Yemeni authorities are making the same mistake that Pakistan made in the past. Yemen has a tribal culture like Pakistan, where a revenge culture is very strong and is the main cause of suicide attacks. 

Ten years ago, Pakistan started an offensive against its own tribesmen under cover of US drones. Despite the loss of 7,000 soldiers, 10,000 ordinary people and heavy losses to economy, Pakistan is still not able to control the situation and militancy is still growing in tribal areas, with useless, endless battles ongoing in different parts of country. 

US drone attacks and revenge attacks are also making things go from bad to worse for security forces and the army is facing an uphill task in controlling the situation. Pakistan also formed tribal forces to fight against militants but this strategy failed to provide the desired results. Several attacks on peace meetings further undermined the situation. The true reality is that the current situation in Afghanistan and Pakistan proves that you can’t win a war against your own people and can’t bring peace through use of drones and use of air power against your own people. Human rights organizations in Pakistan claim that every cost of one militant death is equal to 10 innocent people through drones. The killing of ordinary people provides more opportunity to militants to hire more recruits and pursue their agenda against the government. After several drone attacks and the killing of civilians, the rate of suicide attacks has doubled in Yemen. Instead of taking instructions from outside, Yemeni authorities should try to adopt policies according to their own interest. 

Khawaja Umer Farooq

Jeddah, Saudi Arabia