UK urged to come clean on drone policy

A London-based human rights campaign group has called on the British government to come clean on its policy regarding deadly drone strikes overseas.

In a letter to British Foreign Secretary William Hague, legal charity Reprieve urged the government to publish its assessment of the number of civilians killed in the drone attacks across the globe.

The UK ambassador to Washington, Peter Westmacott, has said the US should buy British-made “Brimstone” missiles for use on its Reaper drones.

In an article written last week for the Defense One website, the senior diplomat also noted that the US military had just finished testing the missiles.

Reprieve executive director Clare Algar, however, warned of “an alarming prospect” of supplying the missiles for use in strikes by the United States.

“The Reaper… is best known for its use by the CIA and other secretive US agencies in carrying out covert strikes in Yemen and Pakistan. Such strikes are in violation of international law, and known to have killed large numbers of civilians outside of declared war zones,” Algar wrote.

A report by the Sunday People newspaper revealed in January that Britain’s Ministry of Defence (MoD) has spent £4 billion ($6.5 billion) to amass a force of 657 military drones.

The fleet includes ten MQ-9 Reaper drones, some 324 Black Hornet Nano micro-helicopters, 222 Desert Hawk UAVs, 63 Watchkeeper drones, 30 Tarantula Hawks, and eight ScanEagles.