Multiple human rights groups demanded that the United States do more to investigate the civilian casualties caused by drone strikes conducted by the Central Intelligence Agency in Pakistan, according to USA Today.
Reports conducted by Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch have concluded that there are instances where civilians were killed working in fields and sitting at home. The drone strikes are said to be aimed at high ranking al-Qaeda leaders yet in many cases people have been killed nowhere near a target, according to USA Today.
"As evidence emerges of civilian casualties in these strikes, it's time for the U.S. to stop covering its ears and start taking action to ensure the program is legal," Letta Taylor, a senior counterterrorism researcher for Human Rights Watch, told Al Jazeera.
The report also alleges that the United States has used drone strikes to kill militants when it would have been possible to capture them alive. Amnesty International found instances where missiles were fired at people who have been attempting to rescue the original targets, according to the Los Angeles Times.
An argument being put forth by the human rights groups is that belonging to a group such as al-Qaeda or having been hostile to the United States in the past is not enough under international law to justify drone strikes, the Los Angeles Times reports.
"We think these people were civilians, and the onus is on the U.S. government to prove otherwise," Naureen Shah, a member of Amnesty International who helped write the report, said. "The U.S. government has this information and is withholding it."
The thinking behind the use of drone strikes has always been that it is the least messy way to conduct war; that is certainly true for the side that is using the drones as there is no risk of life with a drone. The United States has acknowledged that drones are not perfect in the past but still contends that drone strikes tend to be far safer for civilians than conventional bombing or other methods, according to Time.
"There's a wide gap between U.S. assessments of such casualties and nongovernmental reports," President Barack Obama said during a speech in May. "Nevertheless, it is a hard fact that U.S. strikes have resulted in civilian casualties, a risk that exists in every war."
