US Drone Strike in Pakistan Renews Calls for Transparency

The strike was unprecedented.

For the first time, a U.S. drone struck Pakistan outside its lawless border area with Afghanistan, killing the leader of the Afghan Taliban in the country’s southwestern province of Baluchistan.

“It would have been better if Pakistan had targeted him inside its own territory,” Pakistani government employee Umair Khan told VOA. “It’s against the law for the U.S. to target him in our country.” 

Pakistan, Somalia, Yemen — the United States has not hesitated to target terrorist targets when and where it deems fit.

In Pakistan alone, the U.S. has carried out 391 air strikes since 2008, according to The Long War Journal. In Yemen, U.S. strikes targeting al-Qaida commanders total 145 since 2002.

The figures are based on press reports. 

Human rights groups have long called for hard numbers when it comes to counterterrorism strikes that until recently the administration refused to even confirm.

“Saying ‘just trust us, we have high standards, we are doing the best we can’ really isn’t enough and that they need to be disclosing more,” said Rita Siemion of Human Rights First.