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UNHRC calls for probe into drone attacks

9eeedd24718db5e1c6bc54c425e85d52_LThe UN Human Rights Council (UNHRC) has called for independent investigations into drone strikes in Afghanistan, Pakistan, Yemen and elsewhere.

In a 21-page report, the UNHRC demanded the investigations after drone strikes around the world, mostly carried out by the US, led to civilian deaths, The Guardian reported on Monday.
In the report, the UN special rapporteur on human rights and counter-terrorism, Ben Emmerson, said the US drone strikes in Afghanistan and Yemen increased in 2013.
Emmerson added that drone attacks accounted for 40 percent of the total number of civilian fatalities in Afghanistan in 2013, a three-fold rise compared to 2012.
“Having regard to the duty of states to protect civilians in armed conflict, the special rapporteur concluded that in any case in which there have been, or appear to have been, civilian casualties that were not anticipated when the attack was planned, the state responsible is under an obligation to conduct a prompt, independent and impartial fact-finding inquiry and to provide a detailed public explanation of the results,” the report said.
“This obligation would be triggered whenever there is a plausible indication from any apparently reliable source that unintended civilian casualties may have been sustained,” it added.
The US is conducting illegal drone strikes in Pakistan, Afghanistan, Yemen, and Somalia.
Washington claims that its airstrikes target militants, but local sources say civilians have been the main victims of the attacks. The UN has called the US drone attacks targeted killings that flout international law.
Britain conducts illegal drone strikes in Afghanistan where its forces are part of the US-led coalition occupying the country and the Tel Aviv regime often launches assassination drone strikes on the Gaza Strip, which has been under an Israeli blockade since June 2007.

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