US drone war kills up to 168 children in Pakistan: report
Tribesmen sit with Sadaullah Khan (C), a man from Pakistan's North Waziristan tribal region, who says he lost both legs in a drone strike on his house last year. – Reuters Photo
ISLAMABAD: America’s covert drone war on al Qaeda and the Taliban has killed up to 168 children in Pakistan over the last seven years, according to an independent study released Thursday.
The London-based Bureau of Investigative Journalism said its research showed there had been many more CIA attacks on alleged militant targets, leading to far more deaths than previously reported.
It said 291 CIA drone strikes had taken place in Pakistan since 2004, eight percent more than previously reported, and that under President Barack Obama there had been 236 strikes — one every four days.
The Bureau said most of the 2,292 to 2,863 people reported to have died were low-ranking militants, but that only 126 fighters had been named.
It said it had credible reports of at least 385 civilians and a possible upper limit of 775 civilians being killed. It said there were reports of at least 164 children being killed and possibly up to 168.
Washington does not confirm Predator drone attacks, but US officials privately describe the program as vital in the fight against Islamist militants and say that the strikes are accurate, limiting any collateral damage.
“Civilian casualties do seem to have declined in the past year. Yet the Bureau still found credible evidence of at least 45 civilians killed in some 10 strikes in this time,” said the Bureau’s report.
The most recently reported civilian fatality was a migrant worker on leave from Dubai who was killed on July 12 when the CIA attacked a car carrying eight alleged militants, according to the Bureau’s researchers in Waziristan.
On Wednesday, Pakistani security officials said up to 21 Afghan fighters from the al Qaeda-linked Haqqani network, considered the top US foe in eastern Afghanistan, were killed in a drone strike in North Waziristan.
Pakistan’s lawless tribal belt where the drone strikes are carried out is off limits to independent access by journalists and aid workers.
It is both sad and disgusting that any child should be harmed regardless of country, color, religion or anything else. All religions I know condem this but reality is that most of my countrymen can not even name any city in Pakistan or what is going on here and the suffering. The cold reality that we all face is that the world has forgotten that we are all brothers and sisters. In most of the countries I have been to, many have grown cold and heartless devoid of the very human qualities that make us so noble. My sincere hope is that we come back to the dinner table as the family we really are and talk with each other to change what is wrong to what should be. History shows us that politics and strategies hase not changed that much in thousands of years. We are still fighting the same things only later on in time.
It is sad so many innocent lives parish.Ask afather, or a mother who lost there love one. West lost all moral grounds and abandon all rules of engagement.Pakistan Army and government utmost responsibility are to protect and safeguard their people.
it is beyond understanding why we don’t have statistic that how many children are killed by these militant in 10 years of war in Pakistan and Afghanistan. According to some estimates 30000 civilians are killed only in Pakistan by different militant groups….same militants are targeted by these drones. Why Pakistan army don’t take responsibility on first place and finish the bait which attracts drones…?.
Mr.Naeem the reason these people blow themselves up in our cities is BECAUSE of these drone attacks that destroy everything from their homes to their families.
first present your case in front of the world by publishing the pics and data of the victims of drone attacks and then raise an international pressure to cease this act. once the case is strong we can shoot down their drones.
but that will happen once our leaders stop feeding on the bone US throws at them. They are owning us and our leaders are being owned…
please read new york times piece on this news also before drawing any broad conclusions.
Why is that that only Pakistan, and now Somalia, are the targets of drone strikes ?
how these drones aim to curb extremism when all they do is produce more people with killed family members and destroyed homes (all thanks to the drone campaign)who are most willing to blow themselves up after what they are put through?
Thanks to dawn,finally we show the massacre of a so called civilized america in remote parts of Pakistan,but what can we say,western history start with massacres anyway.