"Of the 44 predator strikes carried out by US drones in the tribal
areas of Pakistan over the past 12 months, only five were able to hit their
actual targets, killing five key Al-Qaeda and Taliban leaders, but at the cost of over 700 innocent civilians."
For each alleged al-Qaeda or Taliban member killed by missiles fired from U.S. drones "140 innocent Pakistanis also had to die. Over 90 per cent of those killed in the deadly missile strikes were civilians, claim authorities....On average, 58 civilians were killed in these attacks every month, 12 persons every week and almost two people every day." [4]
The dead may have been armed or unarmed, males or females, adults or children. What they have in common is that they were targeted based on "actionable intelligence" provided by someone on the ground, not necessarily a disinterested party.
Last October, as the killing had begun in earnest, UN Special Rapporteur on Extrajudicial Executions Philip Alston warned:
"My concern is that these drones, these Predators, are being operated in a framework which may well violate international humanitarian law and international human rights law.
"The onus is really on the government of the United States to reveal more about the ways in which it makes sure that arbitrary executions, extrajudicial executions, are not in fact being carried out through the use of these weapons." [5]
Undaunted, the U.S. substantially intensified the attacks.
This January China's Xinhua News Agency interviewed Pakistani political analyst Farrukh Saleem, who said that American drone missile attacks in Pakistan's Federally Administered Tribal Areas had increased from 17 in 2008 to 43 in 2009 with more than 70 expected to be delivered this year.
Saleem was quoted warning that "Such attacks always trigger violence, suicide attacks and casualties in Pakistan. So more drone attacks mean more violence in Pakistan." [6]
On the same day Senator John McCain was in the Pakistani capital of Islamabad and praised the drone attacks as "an effective part of the U.S. strategy." [7]
It was reported last December 17 that a U.S. drone strike had killed at least 20 people in Pakistan's North Waziristan Agency and on the 27th that 13 more were killed in the same region.
Since the New Year began the lethal attacks have only intensified. The following is not an attempt at a comprehensive account, but is gathered from assorted press reports.
On January 1 it was reported that five people were killed and several more injured by two American drone attacks east of the North Waziristan capital. As to the identities of the slain, Reuters quoted a local security official as saying, "The bodies were burned beyond recognition. We are trying to determine their identity." [8] The previous night two more were killed and several injured in another strike.
Reports continued to detail missile strikes and deaths in the nation's tribal areas.
January 3: Five more people were killed in North Waziristan in a drone attack.
January 6: At least thirteen were killed and eight wounded by two back-to-back missile strikes. "According to Pakistan's Geo News, a suspected drone fired two missiles at a house in the Datta Khel region in the first attack, killing seven people.
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