US killer drone strikes in Yemen, war crime: Analyst A report, published in the British daily The Guardian on August 9, said that the US has carried out at least eight assassination drone strikes in Yemen over the past two weeks." An analyst says the assassination drone strikes carried out by the United States in Yemen constitute “a form of terrorism” and qualify as “war crimes,” Press TV reports. “These are really war crimes; the use of drones on countries that the United States is not at war with. It is not only a violation of international law, but it’s also in violation of US law,” Richard Becker of the Act Now to Stop War and End Racism (ANSWER) Coalition said in an exclusive interview with Press TV. According to the US Constitution, Congress has to declare war on another country for a state of war to exist and if a state of war does not exist then in fact those actions are crimes against international law, he explained “People who are under the drones, who are forced to live under them with them buzzing overhead at all times day and night are really living in a state of fear. They are being terrorized including those who are not killed or wounded by a direct strike.” The most comprehensive studies show that the vast majority of people being killed by the drone strikes are in fact civilians, Becker noted. According to the most authoritative study, the analyst underlined, only two percent of those who are being killed fit the classification of a high-level al-Qaeda target. The United States often uses its assassination drones to hit targets in Yemen and some other countries, including Pakistan and Afghanistan. The United States says the CIA-run drone strikes primarily kill al-Qaeda militants, although casualty figures show that Yemeni civilians are often the victims of the non-UN-sanctioned attacks. The United Nations has called the US drone attacks targeted killings that flout international law. A report, published in the British daily The Guardian on August 9, said that the US has carried out at least eight assassination drone strikes in Yemen over the past two weeks. The report added that the drone strikes have killed 34 people since July 27.
Posted on: Sat, 10 Aug 2013 12:16:46 +0000
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