While Donald Trump's decision to restrict entry into the US for 90 days for citizens of seven predominantly Muslim countries has been the dominant topic of conversation online in Yemen - one of the affected nations - another event involving Americans has also sparked widespread anger.

On Saturday, US special forces carried out an operation in central Yemen targeting the house of a suspected leader of the jihadist group al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP). It was the first such raid authorised by the Trump administration.

US officials initially said an estimated 14 al-Qaeda militants were killed, as well as one Navy Seal commando.

But on Wednesday, they acknowledged that an investigation team had "concluded regrettably that civilian non-combatants were likely killed" too, adding that children might have been among the casualties.

Yemeni medics and officials had earlier said that at least 10 women and children were killed. But it was the locally-reported death of one particular individual - eight-year-old Nawar al-Awlaki - that provoked particular fury among Yemenis.

Her grandfather, Nasser al-Awlaki, told several news outlets that Nawar was shot in the neck during the raid. In an interview with the Guardian, he added that he did not believe the US special forces members had meant to kill his granddaughter.

Nawar's uncle, Ammar al-Awlaki, also wrote about upsetting details of how he said she had died in a Facebook post that was widely shared in Yemen.

The al-Qaeda connection

Nawar's father, Anwar al-Awlaki, was a Yemeni-American cleric and suspected senior al-Qaeda leader who was touted as a potential successor to Osama bin Laden before being killed in a US drone strike in 2011.

The strike was said to have been personally ordered by President Obama. Two weeks after the strike, his 16-year-old son Abdulrahman - also an American citizen - was killed by another US drone.

Some Yemenis on social media denounced the US, accusing it of targeting the Awlaki children because of their father's activities.

"Trump killed Nawar six years after Obama killed her brother... who was killed while eating dinner at an outdoor restaurant," read one Facebook post.

Source: BBC

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