US president Barack Obama personally intervened to prevent the release of a Yemeni journalist who revealed that a 2009 airstrike that killed 14 women and 21 children was launched by US drones, not the Yemeni air force.
Abdulelah Haider Shaye was jailed in Yemen for five years in 2010 on trumped-up terrorism charges following a trial condemned by Amnesty International.
According to an investigation by the Bureau of Investigative Journalism, US drone strikes in Yemen have risen sharply over the past two years (with 20 confirmed and 14 unconfirmed attacks).
They are now at the same level as attacks on Pakistan.
Topics: Drones & autonomous weapons