05/12/2013 18:48
US military loosens guidelines on drone use
The Pentagon has dramatically revised its guidelines on the use of drone strikes, removing previous instructions that admonished troops to “ensure” civilians aren’t targeted with drones. Now the US military modified the instructions to encouraging service members to “avoid targeting” civilians, the Voice of Russia said.
In addition, instructions now tell commanders that collateral damage “must not be excessive” in relation to mission goals, according to Public Intelligence, a nonprofit research group that analyzed the military’s directives on drone strikes.
“These subtle but important changes in wording provide insight into the military’s attempts to limit expectations in regards to minimizing collateral damage and predicting the lethal effects of military operations,” Public Intelligence said in a recent report.
The number of civilian casualties caused by US drone strikes is a point of contention among Washington, human rights groups and countries where strikes are conducted, chiefly Afghanistan, Pakistan, Libya, Yemen and Somalia. Because the strikes are classified operations, the US typically does not acknowledge when they occur, or reveal how many combatants and civilians are killed or injured.
An official for the Air Force — the service primarily tasked with carrying out drone strikes — said “tactical directives have changed a number of times over the years to tackle collateral damage concerns not only from aircraft and helicopters but from mortars and other weapons that deliver effects beyond line of sight.”
The October 2012 document was published on a Pentagon website several months ago but has since been removed, said Public Intelligence founder and editor Michael Haynes, who obtained and analyzed the documents.
A military official confirmed that the document is being used, among others, to provide guidance for drones.
Human rights groups say such secrecy prevents scrutiny and accountability for civilian casualties. Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch have released reports focused on Pakistan and Yemen that say the strikes could be illegal and that the US has killed more than 4,700 people, including more than 1,000 civilians.
Administration officials say the strikes are legal because the US is at war with al-Qaeda and its associates. They also insist there is a wide gap between the government’s civilian casualty count and those of human rights groups.