Pentagon widens US drone kill box

The Pentagon has revised its instructions on the use of deadly drone strikes, advising US military personnel to “avoid targeting” civilians instead of requiring them to “ensure” civilians are not targeted.

The Pentagon’s modified guidelines were reported by Public Intelligence, an independent research group that examined the US military’s directives on drone strikes, The Washington Times reported on Thursday.
The guidelines tell US military commanders that civilian deaths “must not be excessive” with respect to missions’ goals.
According to Public Intelligence founder and editor Michael Haynes, the modified guidelines were included in an October 2012 document which was published on a Pentagon website months ago but has since been removed. Haynes obtained and analyzed the documents.
Washington considers its drone operations as classified and typically does not acknowledge when they take place or how many civilians are killed or injured in them.
In October, two UN special rapporteurs, Ben Emmerson and Christof Heyns, criticized the secrecy around Washington’s drone attacks in countries like Pakistan and Yemen and called for more transparency from the US.
According to Emmerson, the UN Special Rapporteur on human rights and counterterrorism, data from the Pakistani government show at least 2,200 people have been killed in Pakistan by US drone attacks since 2004, of whom at least 400 were innocent civilians.