2009 United States attacks in Yemen

In 2009, the United States conducted missile strikes in Yemen against targets associated with al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP). The attacks, endorsed by the Yemeni government after months of negotiations for military intervention, were a culmination of the Barack Obama administration's increasing concern with the threat posed by AQAP.

Under the codename Operation Copper Dune, the US military's Joint Special Operations Command (JSOC) launched Tomahawk missiles at two locations in Yemen on December 17. The main target was in the village of al-Majalah, which was believed to be hosting an AQAP training camp preparing to attack the local US embassy. The cluster missiles killed an estimated 14 militants, including ringleader Mohammed al-Kazemi, but also 41 civilians from two families living in huts near the AQAP camp. An AQAP safehouse in the area of Arhab was also bombed, but the targeted militant Qasim al-Raymi had escaped. A separate missile strike took place on December 24 targeting AQAP leaders Nasir al-Wuhayshi and Said Ali al-Shihri, and possibly Anwar al-Awlaki, at a compound in Rafadh, but none of them were among the five killed. An inquiry into the al-Majalah attack approved of by the Yemeni parliament cited a targeting error as the cause of civilian casualties. The Yemeni government agreed to compensate the victims by 2013.

Yemen publicly claimed responsibility for the attacks, however several news reports at the time began disclosing American involvement, and months later an Amnesty International report was published including photographs taken at al-Majalah which showed munitions exclusively used by the US military. On November 28, 2010, diplomatic cables released by Wikileaks revealed a secret agreement between top US and Yemeni officials in which the Yemeni government agreed it would take responsibility for US military strikes, including the 2009 attacks.

The attacks, the first of a prolonged military campaign in Yemen, did not eliminate AQAP's core leadership or its immediate threat, demonstrated immediately afterwards with the attempted bombing of Northwest Airlines Flight 253. Furthermore, the excessive civilian casualties in al-Majalah outraged local Yemenis and alienated them from their own government as well as the US. AQAP used the anger over the al-Majalah strike to boost its recruiting.