- #US BOMBS EVERY 12 MINUTES FULL#
- #US BOMBS EVERY 12 MINUTES SERIES#
- #US BOMBS EVERY 12 MINUTES FREE#
Three fins on the rear extended all the way and locked in place. Now, as Fahd walked into the hut, a weapon about the length of a compact car was wobbling gracelessly down through the air toward him, losing altitude and unspooling an arming wire that connected it to the jet until, once it had extended a few feet, the wire ran out and ripped from the bomb.
#US BOMBS EVERY 12 MINUTES SERIES#
A series of pyrotechnic cartridges flashed, and a set of hooks holding a bomb in place popped open, while small pistons shoved the weapon away. At about that moment, thousands of feet above him, a pilot pushed a button that sent an electrical signal to a rack mounted underneath his plane. Rabee’a’s striking water had spared Fahd and his family from financial ruin.įahd felt a little cold, though, so he walked away from the drill toward an old stone hut where some friends had gathered. He spent a month visiting friends and relatives, charming and cajoling them into giving him loans when he still didn’t have enough, he asked his wife if he could sell her gold jewelry. Though he couldn’t really afford to invest in the well project, he had felt compelled to buy a share he felt that the village needed him. Tonight he was even more energetic than usual, thanks to his acute sense of relief. He chewed it both sides at a time, two big, puffed-out Louis Armstrong cheeks, whenever villagers gathered. Just about every man in Yemen chews khat, a mild narcotic leaf, but they don’t all chew it the way Fahd did. He took a break in the back of one of the trucks.įahd also showed up, the closest thing the villagers had to a lush.
#US BOMBS EVERY 12 MINUTES FULL#
He went about his work, moving between the rig and a big tanker truck full of water to cool the drill. For Yousef, one of the drill workers, striking water meant he would go home for the holidays flush with cash. Eid was the next day, so it felt a little like a miracle. Some villagers made their way up to the site, to bring Rabee’a food and to celebrate their new well.
#US BOMBS EVERY 12 MINUTES FREE#
After two weeks, with costs rising, Rabee’a got the drill free and guided it down through a few hundred more meters until water bubbled forth with the waste sand. Then two more days, then a week, as the villagers’ tab continued to run. Rabee’a and his workers managed to fix the drill and get it through 400 meters before layers of earth began collapsing, pinning the drill in place. Rabee’a arrived excited for the chance to be the one who found water in a hard place. And there was no guarantee of success: The land was hard, and the best location for the well was high up on the black volcanic rock. If the digging didn’t succeed, though, they would all lose money they couldn’t afford to lose. They all would benefit together if the drill struck water each shareholder would get a few hours at the well every week. So people from villages around the district found their own solution, working out a kind of shared-ownership arrangement. Behind him, people were celebrating, and they were celebrating him, really. “Those jets have no quarrel with a man on the road to God!” “I’m doing a good, legitimate business!” he said. His big heart, he was certain, had locked in his good luck. Despite a mischievous grin, he was a godly man, a good man, and finding water in poor places for poor people had become his calling he even forgave debts when his customers couldn’t pay. Rabee’a was a charitable man from a privileged family - a little self-satisfied, perhaps, but he had enjoyed good fortune for much of his life, and that wasn’t about to change. That kind of thing wouldn’t happen in a poor place like this one, a district called Arhab that, though deep in rebel territory, was home to nothing and no one of interest to a fighter jet.īesides, things like airstrikes didn’t happen to people like him. But to Rabee’a, it was a war happening over the horizon, out of sight. 10, 2016, a year and a half into the war between the Saudis and the Houthi rebels. Rabee’a owned a drill rig, and his friend had heard stories from elsewhere in Yemen about jets bombing well sites. Just before midnight, a businessman named Rabee’a was on the phone, trying to calm his friend down. This story was produced in partnership with the Pulitzer Center
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