MOSCOW, November 25 (Sputnik) – US drone strikes in Pakistan and Yemen may have killed 1,147 civilians in error between 2002 and 2014, the UK human rights organization Reprieve said in a report Tuesday.
The report stresses that the United States has failed to deliver on its promises, after Obama claimed back in 2012 that the strikes had been extremely precise and did not cause civilian casualties. Moreover, the human rights organization says that the White House outlined preconditions to every strike in 2013, ensuring the terrorist target was present and the strike area was free from civilians.
Reprieve says the names of targeted individuals are put on a secret US Kill List, which is approved by the president personally.
Reprieve noted that in media reports the same terrorist names are mentioned time and again among those killed.
"These "high value targets" appear to be doing the impossible – dying not once, not twice, but as many as six times. At the same time, hundreds of unknown men, women and children are also caught in the crosshairs. President Obama continues to insist drone strikes are "precise", but when targeting one person instead kills as many as 128 others, there's only one conclusion that can be drawn – there's nothing targeted about the US drone programme," Reprieve's Staff Attorney Jennifer Gibson said.
According to the report that cites the Bureau of Investigative Journalism, the United States has possibly carried out up to 486 airstrikes in Pakistan and Yemen, which may have killed 4,400 people over the last 12 years, most of them unnamed.
