Three per cent of drone deaths civilian: Pakistan
Pakistan’s Ministry of Defence has said just 3 per cent of the victims of drone attacks in the country are civilian, sparking an outcry from rights activists
Pakistan’s government said on Wednesday 3 per cent of 2,227 people killed in US drone strikes since 2008 were civilians, a surprisingly low figure that sparked criticism from groups that have investigated deaths from the attacks.
The number, which was provided by Pakistan’s Ministry of Defence to the Senate, is much lower than past government calculations and estimates by independent organisations that have gone as high as 300. The ministry said 317 drone strikes have killed 2,160 Islamic militants and 67 civilians since 2008.
The attacks, which mainly target suspected Islamic militants near the northwestern border with Afghanistan, are widely unpopular in Pakistan because they are viewed as violating the country’s sovereignty and killing too many civilians. The Pakistani government regularly criticises the drone programme in public, even though it is known to have secretly supported at least some of the strikes in the past.
Pakistan’s Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif pressed President Barack Obama to end the attacks in a visit to the White House last week, but the US considers the attacks vital to its battle against al-Qaeda and the Taliban and gave no indication it was willing to abandon them.
The latest strike occurred around midnight on Wednesday, when missiles destroyed a vehicle in Miran Shah, the main town in the North Waziristan tribal region, a major militant sanctuary, Pakistani intelligence officials said. No one was killed in the attack, said the officials, speaking on condition of anonymity because they were not authorised to talk to the media.