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January 25, 2013

U.N. to Probe Alleged War Crimes in U.S. Drone Strikes 
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The U.N. Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights has announced
a new investigation of the civilian toll of U.S. drone strikes overseas.
Ben Emmerson, the U.N. special rapporteur on human rights and
counter-terrorism, unveiled his inquiry on Thursday.

Ben Emmerson: "The central objective of the present investigation is to
look at the evidence that drone strikes and other forms of remote
targeted killing have caused disproportionate civilian casualties in
some instances, and to make recommendations concerning the duty of
States to conduct thorough independent and impartial investigations into
such allegations."

The U.N. probe comes as the Obama administration appears to be
escalating its drone warfare abroad, launching more than a dozen attacks
in Yemen and Pakistan already this year. This week, the United States
launched at least five drone strikes in Yemen in as many days. According
to some reports the latest attack mistakenly killed two Yemeni children.

 

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