Reports: Drone Strikes Illegal

Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch called out the U.S. for “illegal” drone strikes in separate reports released on Tuesday. Amnesty focused on nine strikes in Pakistan between May 2012 and July 2013, claiming more than 30 civilians were killed in the strikes. HRW investigated six selected strikes in Yemen since 2009, finding that 57 of the 82 people killed were civilians. Each specific incident had coverage by local and even international news outlets, but the reports go more in depth by interviewing survivors, other witnesses, and government officials. These findings come just days after a United Nations report which found that as many as 600 of the 2,200 people killed by drove strikes in Pakistan were civilians.