contribution by Jamie Thunder

On June 29 this year John Brennan, President Obama’s chief counter-terrorism advisor, said in a speech at John Hopkins University that there ‘hasn’t been a single collateral death’ in the past year from the USA’s use of unmanned drones in Pakistan.

This echoed earlier assurances from unnamed US and Pakistani officials, who claimed some militants had been allowed to escape rather than risk civilians being killed.

But research by the Bureau of Investigative Journalism published yesterday shows that claims no civilians have been killed are wrong.

It found that since a drone strike in August 2010 that supposedly changed the CIA’s policy towards the technique, at least 45 civilians, including six children, had been killed in ten separate attacks. It also identified 15 further strikes since August 2010 in which civilians might have been killed.

Drone strikes in Pakistan now occur at a rate of one every four days, mostly around the tribal border regions of North and South Waziristan.

On August 23 2010, around 20 people were killed in a strike on Danda Darpakhel in North Waziristan. The town was targeted because of its links with the Haqqani Network, but at least four civilians were killed when the drone fired on their house. Shortly after this it was announced that drones would only be used when civilian casualities could be avoided, but the Bureau’s analysis shows that people unconnected to terrorism are still being killed.

Although publicly Pakistan’s government has condemned the drone attacks, in diplomatic cables released by Wikileaks its leaders seemed to endorse the strikes.

The stories

US claims of ‘no civilian deaths’ in Pakistan drone strikes is untrue

Drone strikes rise to one every four days

The CIA drone strike that rewrote the rules

‘Precision is relative’ – an interview with Professor Anatol Lieven

Get the data: Twenty-five deadly strikes

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Jamie blogs at The Thunderer and is on Twitter

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