Alex Constantine - April 22, 2013
Apr 20, 2013
While the world sympathizes with the US over the Boston Marathon bombings, anti-drone activists are asking questions about the relative silence in the case of hundreds of Pakistani civilians including children killed in more than 300 US drone strikes.
As of March, 2013, according to the The Bureau of Investigative Journalism (BIJ), the cumulative statistics show that under the George W. Bush and Barack Obama administrations, the US has conducted about 366 drone strikes. The BIJ reports that its Naming the Deadproject has documented 2,541 (minimum) - 3533 (maximum) people killed in US drone strikes, mostly in Pakistan since 2004.
The bureau estimates that 411-884 civilians have been killed, including 168-197 children.
The UN special rapporteur on counter-terrorism Ben Emmerson, confirmed BIJstatistics when he said in March that CIA drones have killed at least 400 civilians in Pakistan. Recently, BIJ published a list of names of children killed by American drones (see list below). Some of the children are infants aged 1-4.
Global Research comments on the list: "... behind each name there is the face of a child with a family history in a village in a far away country, with a mom and a dad, with brothers and sisters and friends," just like the 8-year-old American child killed in the tragic Boston Marathon bombing.
In some cases, brothers and sisters of a family were killed in a single drone strike. According to Global Research:
Four sisters of the Ali Mohammed Nasser family in Yemen were killed. Afrah was 9 years old when she and her three younger sisters Zayda (7 years old) , Hoda (5 years old) and Sheika (4 years old) were struck by an American drone.
Ibrahim, a 13 year old boy of the Abdullah Mokbel Salem Louqye family in Yemen was struck by a US drone, together with his younger brother Asmaa (9 years old) and two younger sisters, Salma (4 years old) and Fatima (3 years old
These children are innocent. They are not different from our own children.
Their lives were taken away at a very young age as part of a military agenda, which claims to be combating “international terrorism.”
Anti-drone activists argue that killing innocent children can't be "foreign policy" when it is an act of the US government and "terrorism" only when it is the act of Islamic fundamentalists.
An American expresses his feelings of frustration about the moral tunnel vision on both sides of the conflict:
This is that THING, one of the greatest problems with humanity, that their spies should be executed while our spies given medals, their snipers are evil while our snipers are doing God’s work, our bombs are blessed by Jesus while theirs come from the Devil and on and on it goes... That tribalism – caused mostly by religion and nationality – has caused the MURDER of hundreds of millions of innocent people... If only someone, somewhere, sometime would step up to the plate on this issue and tell it like it is. If only we could...
A Yemeni free-lance journalist Farea Al-Muslimi, whose village came recently under drone attack comments on the terrorizing impact of US "foreign policy" on ordinary Yemenis:
... it is tempting to conclude that the US has no interest in a measured response to terrorism... it doesn't matter to them whether they terrorize (and radicalize) entire populations as they check another name off their “kill list.
Drones have a tremendous psychological effect on those living in their shadows. Villagers say drones hovered over Wessab for three days before they struck. The ominous buzz of the drones terrorizes communities. Where will they strike? Will I be next? These are the questions youngsters now grow up asking.
The "collateral damage" of drones cannot just be measured in corpses. Drones are traumatizing a generation and further alienating Yemenis from any cooperation with the West, or even with the Yemeni central government.
List of children killed by drone strikes in Pakistan and Yemen compiled by the Bureau of Investigative Journalism:
“‘PAKISTAN’”
“‘Name | Age | Gender’”
“‘Noor Aziz | 8 | male’”
“‘Abdul Wasit | 17 | male’”
“‘Noor Syed | 8 | male’”
“‘Wajid Noor | 9 | male’”
“‘Syed Wali Shah | 7 | male’”
“‘Ayeesha | 3 | female’”
“‘Qari Alamzeb | 14| male’”
“‘Shoaib | 8 | male’”
“‘Hayatullah KhaMohammad | 16 | male’”
“‘Tariq Aziz | 16 | male’”
“‘Sanaullah Jan | 17 | male’”
“‘Maezol Khan | 8 | female’”
“‘Nasir Khan | male’”
“‘Naeem Khan | male’”
“‘Naeemullah | male’”
“‘Mohammad Tahir | 16 | male’”
“‘Azizul Wahab | 15 | male’”
“‘Fazal Wahab | 16 | male’”
“‘Ziauddin | 16 | male’”
“‘Mohammad Yunus | 16 | male’”
“‘Fazal Hakim | 19 | male’”
“‘Ilyas | 13 | male’”
“‘Sohail | 7 | male’”
“‘Asadullah | 9 | male’”
“‘khalilullah | 9 | male’”
“‘Noor Mohammad | 8 | male’”
“‘Khalid | 12 | male’”
“‘Saifullah | 9 | male’”
“‘Mashooq Jan | 15 | male’”
“‘Nawab | 17 | male’”
“‘Sultanat Khan | 16 | male’”
“‘Ziaur Rahman | 13 | male’”
“‘Noor Mohammad | 15 | male’”
“‘Mohammad Yaas Khan | 16 | male’”
“‘Qari Alamzeb | 14 | male’”
“‘Ziaur Rahman | 17 | male’”
“‘Abdullah | 18 | male’”
“‘Ikramullah Zada | 17 | male’”
“‘Inayatur Rehman | 16 | male’”
“‘Shahbuddin | 15 | male’”
“‘Yahya Khan | 16 |male’”
“‘Rahatullah |17 | male’”
“‘Mohammad Salim | 11 | male’”
“‘Shahjehan | 15 | male’”
“‘Gul Sher Khan | 15 | male’”
“‘Bakht Muneer | 14 | male’”
“‘Numair | 14 | male’”
“‘Mashooq Khan | 16 | male’”
“‘Ihsanullah | 16 | male’”
“‘Luqman | 12 | male’”
“‘Jannatullah | 13 | male’”
“‘Ismail | 12 | male’”
“‘Taseel Khan | 18 | male’”
“‘Zaheeruddin | 16 | male’”
“‘Qari Ishaq | 19 | male’”
“‘Jamshed Khan | 14 | male’”
“‘Alam Nabi | 11 | male’”
“‘Qari Abdul Karim | 19 | male’”
“‘Rahmatullah | 14 | male’”
“‘Abdus Samad | 17 | male’”
“‘Siraj | 16 | male’”
“‘Saeedullah | 17 | male’”
“‘Abdul Waris | 16 | male’”
“‘Darvesh | 13 | male’”
“‘Ameer Said | 15 | male’”
“‘Shaukat | 14 | male’”
“‘Inayatur Rahman | 17 | male’”
“‘Salman | 12 | male’”
“‘Fazal Wahab | 18 | male’”
“‘Baacha Rahman | 13 | male’”
“‘Wali-ur-Rahman | 17 | male’”
“‘Iftikhar | 17 | male’”
“‘Inayatullah | 15 | male’”
“‘Mashooq Khan | 16 | male’”
“‘Ihsanullah | 16 | male’”
“‘Luqman | 12 | male’”
“‘Jannatullah | 13 | male’”
“‘Ismail | 12 | male’”
“‘Abdul Waris | 16 | male’”
“‘Darvesh | 13 | male’”
“‘Ameer Said | 15 | male’”
“‘Shaukat | 14 | male’”
“‘Inayatur Rahman | 17 | male’”
“‘Adnan | 16 | male’”
“‘Najibullah | 13 | male’”
“‘Naeemullah | 17 | male’”
“‘Hizbullah | 10 | male’”
“‘Kitab Gul | 12 | male’”
“‘Wilayat Khan | 11 | male’”
“‘Zabihullah | 16 | male’”
“‘Shehzad Gul | 11 | male’”
“‘Shabir | 15 | male’”
“‘Qari Sharifullah | 17 | male’”
“‘Shafiullah | 16 | male’”
“‘Nimatullah | 14 | male’”
“‘Shakirullah | 16 | male’”
“‘Talha | 8 | male’”
“‘YEMEN’”
“‘Afrah Ali Mohammed Nasser | 9 | female’”
“‘Zayda Ali Mohammed Nasser | 7 | female’”
“‘Hoda Ali Mohammed Nasser | 5 | female’”
“‘Sheikha Ali Mohammed Nasser | 4 | female’”
“‘Ibrahim Abdullah Mokbel Salem Louqye | 13 | male’”
“‘Asmaa Abdullah Mokbel Salem Louqye | 9 | male’”
“‘Salma Abdullah Mokbel Salem Louqye | 4 | female’”
“‘Fatima Abdullah Mokbel Salem Louqye | 3 | female’”
“‘Khadije Ali Mokbel Louqye | 1 | female’”
“‘Hanaa Ali Mokbel Louqye | 6 | female’”
“‘Mohammed Ali Mokbel Salem Louqye | 4 | male’”
“‘Jawass Mokbel Salem Louqye | 15 | female’”
“‘Maryam Hussein Abdullah Awad | 2 | female’”
“‘Shafiq Hussein Abdullah Awad | 1 | female’”
“‘Sheikha Nasser Mahdi Ahmad Bouh | 3 | female’”
“‘Maha Mohammed Saleh Mohammed | 12 | male’”
“‘Soumaya Mohammed Saleh Mohammed | 9 | female’”
“‘Shafika Mohammed Saleh Mohammed | 4 | female’”
“‘Shafiq Mohammed Saleh Mohammed | 2 | male’”
“‘Mabrook Mouqbal Al Qadari | 13 | male’”
“‘Daolah Nasser 10 years | 10 | female’”
“‘AbedalGhani Mohammed Mabkhout | 12 | male’”
“‘Abdel- Rahman Anwar al Awlaki | 16 | male’”
“‘Abdel-Rahman al-Awlaki | 17 | male’”
“Nasser Salim | 19”
