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September 6, 2013

Yemeni Youth Activist, Anti-Drone Campaigner Ibrahim Mothana Dies at 24 
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The Yemeni activist Ibrahim Mothana, who campaigned against the U.S. use
of drones and participated in Yemen's youth-led uprising, has died at
the age of 24. The exact circumstances of his death are unclear; one
Facebook commenter said he had a heart attack. Last year, in an open
letter to President Obama published in the New York Times, Mothana
wrote: "Drone strikes are causing more and more Yemenis to hate America
and join radical militants; they are not driven by ideology but rather
by a sense of revenge and despair ... rather than winning the hearts and
minds of Yemeni civilians, America is alienating them by killing their
relatives and friends," he wrote. In 2011, Mothana spoke about the
future of Yemen at an event in Sweden.

Ibrahim Mothana: "As I'm speaking now we have drones and air strikes,
U.S. air strikes in Abyan, and it won't work. It will never work unless
you tackle the issue comprehensively, you try to see the whole image,
you see what is drivers of extremism, what is the drivers of the lack of
security, then you'll be able to solve it. You cannot just isolate it
and try to solve it alone, it's a package."

 

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