On December 12 a bride and groom traveled to their wedding in al-Baitha province , Yemen . It was supposed to be a day of celebration . Instead , in a few seconds , their happiness was obliterated . A U.S. drone fired at the wedding procession , destroying five vehicles and killing most of their occupants . Not even the bride 's car , beautifully decorated with flowers , was spared from the carnage . Senior Yemeni officials later admitted that the strike was a `` mistake '' . Quite some mistake : although the bride survived , the strike killed 14 civilians and injured 22 more , according to officials -- the largest death toll by a drone attack in Yemen since the program began in 2002 . Since the killings , a wave of outrage has swept across the country . The Yemeni government rushed to meet community elders , seeking to negotiate a quiet settlement for the killing of the bride 's loved ones . But the bereaved villagers rejected the overtures and instead demanded that President Abdu Rabu Mansour Hadi stop U.S. drone strikes before they would sit at any negotiating table . As ever , the White House responded to press queries about the incident with only silence . U.S. President Barack Obama has issued no admission of responsibility , let alone an apology . Only after recent evidence gathered from the scene by Reprieve did officials grudgingly admit that they would look into the strike . This is not the first time a U.S. drone has killed civilians in al-Baitha province . On September 2 , 2012 , a U.S. drone hit a minibus near Radda , according to Yemeni officials . This time the vehicle was full of villagers carrying their day 's shopping . As usual the initial press coverage labelled the dead as `` al Qaeda militants , '' but when the relatives threatened to deliver the bodies to the President 's gates , the Yemeni government was forced to concede that all 12 people killed were civilians . Among the victims were a pregnant woman and three children . Only recently , we had reason to hope for better . Last month , Yemeni civil engineer Faisal bin Ali Jaber went to Washington , traveling over 7,000 miles in search of answers . He met Congressmen , Senators , and even some White House officials to describe how U.S. drone strikes incinerated his nephew and brother-in-law at his son 's hometown wedding last year . In this strike two of the casualties were not only civilians , they were potential allies -- one was an imam who regularly preached against al Qaeda ; the other was this small town 's only policemen . Faisal received heartfelt condolences from many lawmakers . Yet no official was prepared to explain why his relatives were killed , or why the U.S. administration refused to acknowledge it had made a mistake . The use of drones in Yemen might seem a simple , quick-fix option for Obama . But with every civilian death , al Qaeda 's recruiting power increases . Nabeel Khoury , former U.S. Deputy Chief of Mission to Yemen , recently reminded us of just that . Asked whether the covert U.S. drone war in Yemen was creating more enemies than it removed , he concluded : `` Drone strikes take out a few bad guys to be sure , but they also kill a large number of innocent civilians . Given Yemen 's tribal structure , the U.S. generates roughly forty to sixty new enemies for every AQAP operative killed by drones . '' Let me be clear : I , like the vast majority of my countrymen , reject terrorism . All of us were repulsed by footage of the gruesome al Qaeda attack on a Defence Ministry hospital that left dozens dead in December . We agree that our fight against extremist groups can not be won without a variety of efforts , including robust law enforcement . But U.S. drone strikes are exacerbating our problem by leaving families bereaved and entire villages terrified . Drones destroy the fabric of Yemeni society . Wronged and angry men are just the sort extreme groups like al Qaeda in the Arab Peninsula find easiest to recruit . Our President may reassure the U.S. of his support for drone strikes , but he does so in complete contradiction to the Yemeni people 's wishes . This year , two of Yemen 's greatest democratic institutions made this clear . Yemen 's National Dialogue Conference -- praised by Obama as a `` historic '' institution -- and the Yemeni Parliament have both voted overwhelmingly to ban the use of drones . For a country so often divided , this unanimity from Yemen 's key democratic bodies shows the strength of public opinion against drones . But the people 's cries have been met only with more missiles raining down from the skies above . How can we in Yemen build our fledgling democracy when our collective will is ignored by Western democracy 's most powerful proponent ?
In December a U.S. drone strike mistakenly targeted a wedding convoy in Yemen . The strike killed 14 civilians , outraging Yemen , but U.S. has failed to take responsibility . Shiban : Drones may seem like quick fix , but every errant strike helps al Qaeda recruit .