Only 4 Percent Of Drone Victims In Pakistan Identified As Al Qaeda Members

Only 4 Percent Of Drone Victims In Pakistan Identified As Al Qaeda Members
A Pakistani child sifts through rubble at a destroyed religious seminary belonging to the Haqqani network after a US drone strike in the Hangu district of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province on November 21, 2013. A US drone strike targeting a base of the Haqqani militant network in northwest Pakistan killed six people in only the second such strike outside the country's lawless tribal districts. AFP PHOTO/SB SHAH (Photo credit should read SB SHAH/AFP/Getty Images)
A Pakistani child sifts through rubble at a destroyed religious seminary belonging to the Haqqani network after a US drone strike in the Hangu district of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province on November 21, 2013. A US drone strike targeting a base of the Haqqani militant network in northwest Pakistan killed six people in only the second such strike outside the country's lawless tribal districts. AFP PHOTO/SB SHAH (Photo credit should read SB SHAH/AFP/Getty Images)

As the number of US drone strikes in Pakistan hits 400, research by the Bureau of Investigative Journalism finds that fewer than 4% of the people killed have been identified by available records as members of al Qaeda. This calls in to question US Secretary of State John Kerry’s claim last year that only “confirmed terrorist targets at the highest level” were fired at.

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