U.S. Drone Strikes in Pakistan Mostly Hit Homes and Schools

Next month will mark 10 years
of the United States’ ongoing bomb-dropping operation on its ally
Pakistan. Just in time for this sordid anniversary, The Bureau of
Investigative Journalism last week released a report that indicates
the majority of these strikes aimed at terrorists have been
executed on schools and homes.

The Bureau
explains:

• Over three-fifths (61%) of all drone strikes in Pakistan
  targeted domestic buildings, with at least 132 houses
  destroyed, in more than 380 strikes.
• At least 222 civilians are estimated to be among the 1,500 or
  more people killed in attacks on such buildings. In the past 18
  months, reports of civilian casualties in attacks on any targets
  have almost completely vanished, but historically almost one
  civilian was killed, on average, in attacks on houses.
• The CIA has consistently attacked houses throughout the 10-year
  campaign in Pakistan.
• The time of an attack affects how many people—and how many
  civilians—are likely to die. Houses are twice as likely to be
  attacked at night compared with in the afternoon. Strikes
  that took place in the evening, when families [are] likely to be at
  home and gathered together, were particularly deadly.

Still, an unnamed government official argued that

the U.S. government only targets terrorists who pose a
continuing and imminent threat to the American people. Period. Any
suggestion otherwise is flat wrong. Furthermore, before any strike
is taken, there must be near-certainty that no civilians will be
killed or injured—the highest standard we can set.

This has long been the dubious stance of the Obama
administration, which, according to available data, is still
responsible for over 200 civilian casualties. Organizations like
the
United Nations and journalists like Glenn
Greenwald suggest that such estimates are actually
artificially low, because the government
doesn’t actually know who it’s killing and in 2012 it broadened
the definition of “militant” to include virtually any male who
finds himself in the path of a Hellfire missile.

The Bureau paints a picture even more grim, explaining that
deaths of women and children in schools and homes are probably far
worse than acknowledged, because their “relative seclusion within
private space makes them particularly vulnerable to becoming an
unknown casualty when a strike occurs.”