Monday, April 30, 2012
White House counterterrorism advisor John Brennan
The United States has defended its assassination drone strikes in several countries despite the deaths of a large number of civilians.
White House counterterrorism advisor John Brennan acknowledged on Sunday that the strikes resulted in civilian deaths.
"Unfortunately, in war, there are casualties, including among the civilian population," Brennan told ABC News.
This is while the official did not mention that Washington is not at war with Pakistan, Yemen and Somalia.
Brennan also said “sometimes you have to take life to save lives.”
However, he provided no examples of how the killing of people, had “saved lives.”
In an interview with Press TV, Pakistani human rights lawyer Shahzad Akbar said over 2,800 of the 3,000 people killed over the past seven years in non-UN-sanctioned US assassination drone strikes in Pakistan were civilians.
The director of the Foundation for Fundamental Rights said only 170 of the people killed in the aerial attacks on the northwestern tribal belt of Pakistan have been identified as militants.
That means that “over 2,800 people were civilians, whose identities are not known, and they have just been killed on suspicion of being militants,” Akbar said.
The US claims that the drones are used against militants, but locals say civilians are the main victims.
AGB/JR/HGH