Update

Heyns warns about a ‘lack of consensus’ over the international law governing drone strikes (Photo: United Nations) A UN expert has called for nations that operate armed drones to be more transparent and ‘publicly disclose’ how they use them. In a report prepared for the UN, Christof Heyns, the special rapporteur on extrajudicial killings, points […]

Multiple drone strikes hit Pakistan, but no confirmed US attacks in Yemen (Senior Airman Larry E. Reid Jr/US Air Force). CIA drones strike Pakistan four times in September. Drone attacks pause for a month in Yemen. No strikes in Somalia. Al Shabaab violence grabs the world’s attention. Pakistan September 2013 actions Total CIA strikes in […]

Secretary of State John Kerry meets President Asif Ali Zardari in Pakistan.(State Department photo/Public Domain). One strike in Pakistan ends 34-day stretch without an attack. Yemen sees more strikes in a month than any time since March 2012. Medical charity Médecins Sans Frontières pulls out of Somalia. Pakistan August 2013 actions Total CIA strikes in August: 1 […]

A US Air Force Predator on patrol (US Air Force Photo/Lt Col Leslie Pratt). The CIA killed more people in Pakistan per strike than at any point since July 2012. US drones return to Yemen‘s skies and al Qaeda confirms the death of its deputy leader. UN report finds indications of increased US and UK involvement […]

Dianne Feinstein (centre) and members of the Senate intelligence committee grill John Brennan (Photo: SenRockefeller via Flickr) In the Bureau’s latest investigation into the tactic of ‘double-tap’ strikes on rescuers, our field researcher’s findings appear to directly contradict an account of a strike attributed to staffers of the Congressional bodies charged with overseeing CIA drone […]

A Pakistani soldier in FATA, where there have been 370 CIA drone strikes. (Photo: Chris Woods) US officials are claiming that an internal Pakistani assessment of civilian deaths from US drone strikes – obtained and published in full by the Bureau –  is ‘far from authoritative.’ The secret document was obtained by the Bureau from […]

In May, President Obama admitted for the first time US drones have caused civilian casualties in the covert drone war (Image: Peter Souza/White House). Bureau data suggests the CIA is killing fewer people in each strike in Pakistan. Lack of official transparency means it remains unclear who is carrying out strikes in Yemen. No reports of US […]

A US drone crashed in al Shabaab-controlled southern Somalia this month (Photo: Twitter) The Pakistan Taliban’s deputy commander is killed in a CIA drone strike A CIA drone attack in Yemen kills four, reportedly including a senior leader in al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula The Pentagon admits a US surveillance drone has crashed in Somalia Pakistan May […]

Clarity from the White House (Photo: Michael Baird/ Flickr) Two of the most controversial aspects of the US covert drone campaign – CIA control of strikes in Pakistan, and the use of so-called signature strikes – look set to continue until at least 2014, papers released by the White House indicate. In the wake of […]

 Barack Obama at a recent meeting of the National Security Council. (Pete Souza/ White House) Barack Obama has made it clear that the US will continue with its controversial targeted killing programme. In a major speech the US president also announced that he has signed into force a new – and secret – rule book for […]

An armed Reaper sits on the apron at Nellis Air Force Base. (cclark395/Flickr) Two CIA strikes kill at least eight in Pakistan, including an al Qaeda commander. US drone strikes return to Yemen after an 85-day pause. Militants launch one of their most well organised and deadly attacks to date, on a court house in […]

Ten human rights and civil liberties groups have written an open letter to President Obama raising concerns over targeted killings and the use of drones. Here is the text in full:

ICRC president Peter Maurer urged ‘very restrained’ use of drones (Photo: Thierry Gassmann / www.icrc.org) The president of the humanitarian organisation International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) this week warned of the organisation’s concerns over drones being used in situations that are not official armed conflicts. Peter Maurer made the comments following a four-day trip to […]

John Brennan being sworn in as CIA director in March 2013. (White House/ David Lienemann) US intelligence officials were aware that at least one civilian had died in drone strikes in Pakistan during 2011, despite claims to the contrary made by the man now running the Central Intelligence Agency. In June 2011, John Brennan, at […]

An armed Reaper waits on the ramp in Afghanistan (US Air Force). Two strikes hit Pakistan, ending a month-long pause between attacks. There were no reported US drone strikes in Yemen in March, marking the longest pause between covert attacks in three years. No strikes were again recorded in Somalia. Pakistan March 2013 actions Total CIA […]

The Pakistani government denied it secretly consents to strikes. (Photo: stephenpend) The Pakistani government estimates at least 400 civilians have been killed in drone strikes – a figure close to the Bureau’s own findings. In evidence to  Ben Emmerson QC, UN special rapporteur on counter-terrorism,  the Pakistan Ministry of Foreign Affairs has said that CIA drones […]

Gamal Sakr blames government for son’s death. (Image: Susannah Ireland, Independent) The parents of a British-born man killed by a US drone strike after being stripped of his UK citizenship have spoken out for the first time – to say they will never forgive the British Government for his death. Mohamed Sakr was born and […]

John Brennan – leading proponent of the drone programme and the CIA’s director-designate (C-Span). CIA drones kill two alleged al Qaeda commanders in two strikes on Pakistan. US operations drop to zero in Yemen a year after President Saleh was ousted from power. No operations reported in Somalia. Pakistan February 2013 actions Total CIA strikes […]

Are Congressional oversight bodies really doing their ‘utmost’? (Photo L’ennnui/ Flickr) Claims by a powerful Senate oversight committee that it is doing its ‘utmost’ to verify claims of civilian casualties from covert US drone strikes have been undermined by the discovery that it has made no contact with any group conducting field studies into civilian […]

Passport cancelled: the Coalition government has stripped 16 people of their British citizenship. (Image: Shutterstock) An investigation by the Bureau of Investigative Journalism and published in the Independent has established that since 2010 the Home Secretary Theresa May has revoked the passports of 16 individuals many of whom are alleged to have had links to […]

Brennan talks with Obama in the president’s private dining room, 2010 (Photo: White House) John Brennan, the incoming director of the Central Intelligence Agency, told US senators last night that the CIA does not carry out covert drone strikes ‘to punish terrorists for past transgressions’. He insisted instead that they are only used ‘as a […]

A fully armed Reaper taxis before a mission (US Air Force – Sgt Brian Ferguson). In Pakistan a heavy CIA drone campaign targeted both so-called ‘good’ and ‘bad’ Taliban. Three senior militants were among the dead. Yemen was hit by the highest number of airstrikes in one month since June 2012, though none have been formally confirmed as US operations. […]

Ben Emmerson QC addresses reporters in London (Photo: TBIJ) A UN investigation into the legality and casualties of drone strikes has been formally launched, with a leading human rights lawyer revealing the team that will carry out the inquiry. The announcement came as the latest reported US drone strike in Yemen was said to have […]

Obama’s CIA choice. But Brennan civilian death claims raise issues. (White House/ Pete Souza) Claims by the Central Intelligence Agency’s new director-designate that the US intelligence services received ‘no information’ about any civilians killed by US drones in the year prior to June 2011 do not appear to bear scrutiny. John Brennan, President Obama’s nominee […]

An MQ-9 Reaper at Creech Air Force Base, Nevada (USAF/Lance Cheung) Reported civilian deaths fell sharply in Pakistan in 2012, with Bureau data suggesting that a minimum of 2.5% of those reported killed were civilians – compared with more than 14% in 2011. This suggests the CIA is seeking to limit non-militant casualties, perhaps as a […]

A Reaper drone at Kandahar Airfield, Afghanistan (Photo: Ministry of Defence) The British parliament will examine the use of drones as part of an overarching inquiry into the future of the UK’s armed forces. The defence select committee – a panel of 12 politicians led by James Arbuthnot MP – has published its programme of […]

An MQ-9 Reaper returns to Kandahar from an Afghan mission. (USAF/Tech Sgt Chad Chisholm) Recent conflicts in Afghanistan, Libya and Iraq have seen almost 1,200 drone strikes over the past five years, according to new data released to the Bureau. The information, much of it classified until now, shows that US Air Force drones carried […]

A US Reaper taxis at Kandahar Airbase, Afghanistan (ChuckHolton/Flickr). Pakistan: CIA drone strikes return to Pakistan after a 36 day pause, as Washington sets out to codify its covert drone strikes policy. Yemen: A strike nine miles from Sanaa targets a Yemen army colonel and alleged militant. But his family and others question why he was not […]

Predator drones increasingly a museum piece thanks to more lethal models (Justinpickard/ Flickr) The Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) usually gets all the credit for the first US drone targeted killing beyond the conventional battlefield. But it was the military which gave the final go-ahead to kill on November 3 2002. Lt General Michael DeLong was […]

The Washington Post: is it telling the whole story? Alongside the Washington Post’s latest blockbuster reports on the Obama administration’s drone kill list is a new graphic, depicting US covert strikes since 2002. Based on studies by monitoring organisations, the graphic lists hundreds of US drone strikes in Pakistan, Yemen and Somalia, in what the […]