Drones have ‘pattern’ of civilian deaths

American journalist Bruce Gagnon says that investigations into US drone attacks overseas have shown that they have “a pattern of killing innocent civilians.”

“Various investigations by journalists and some people in the UN have shown that there has been a pattern of killing innocent civilians for several years with drones,” in Pakistan and Afghanistan, Gagnon told Press TV on Tuesday.

The family of a 67-year-old Pakistani woman who was killed by a CIA drone strike in a remote village in North Waziristan last year gave a harrowing testimony to US Congress on Tuesday.

“Nobody has ever told me why my mother was targeted that day,” Rafiq ur Rehman, said, through a translator.

“Some media outlets reported that the attack was on a car, but there is no road alongside my mother’s house. Others reported that the attack was on a house. But the missiles hit a nearby field, not a house. All of them reported that three, four, five militants were killed.”

The pattern of killing civilians “is now expanding from Afghanistan and Pakistan to Yemen”, said Gagnon who is a member of Global Network Against Weapons & Nuclear Power in Space.

He went on to say that “there is a growing awareness and concerns among American people about drone policy.”

“We found the response of the people surprisingly overwhelmingly opposed to the drones and the money that is spent on endless wars,” he added.

The US uses assassination drones in several countries — including Afghanistan, Pakistan, and Yemen — to target what it calls terrorists. According to witnesses, however, the attacks have mostly led to civilian casualties.

Earlier this month, Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch said in a joint report that US officials could be found guilty of war crimes for the secret CIA drone attacks which have killed hundreds of civilians in Yemen and Pakistan.

The aerial attacks, initiated by former US president, George W. Bush, have escalated under President Barack Obama who recently defended the use of controversial drones as “self-defense.”

The United Nations says the US drone strikes pose a growing challenge to the international rule of law.

AT/HJ