Alex Constantine - January 28, 2011
" ... the CIA killed innocent people merely on the suspicion of being militants. ...
Javed Rana | Press TV, Islamabad
The year 2010, US drone attacks killed Pakistani civilians on an average of three per day in the tribal areas bordering Afghanistan (video). The CIA carried out an unprecedented 132 drone attacks killing 938 people alone during the past year.Details of the deaths emerged in an annual report compiled by The Conflict Monitoring Center, an Islamabad based NGO. The report gives detailed accounts on how the CIA killed innocent people merely on the suspicion of being militants.
The Conflict Monitoring Center points out that none of the media organizations throughout last year reported body counts from independent sources.
The media reports were based on claims of anonymous U.S. and Pakistani intelligence officials. According to these findings, casualties could be much higher as security officials have a tendency to whitewash the evidence of civilian deaths for fear of public backlash
Over half of the 132 drone attacks were carried out in the last four months of the past year to what many believe an attempt by the US to showcase some semblance of success against militants in the tribal region to propagate justification for a gradual draw-down of NATO troops from Afghanistan.
However, many analysts believe the geo-strategic game plans of the US have turned out to be counter productive.
The year 2010 proved to be one of the deadliest years as the number of drone strikes exceeded the combined number of such attacks carried out from 2004 to 2009. The report states that 2052 people lost their lives in drone strikes during the 5-year period. The growing causalities of civilians has left behind many tragic stories in the tribal areas.
As the number of civilian deaths continues to mount, public reaction in Pakistan against the frequent use of drone strikes has finally gathered momentum.
http://www.presstv.ir/detail/158523.html
