Republican presidential candidate and real estate mogul Donald Trump said the U.S. ought to "take out" the families of terrorists in the fight against the self-described Islamic State.
Asked in a Wednesday morning interview on Fox News whether he was concerned about the possibility of civilian casualties, Trump said he would "do my best."
"I mean, one of the problems that we have and one of the reason that we're so ineffective, is they're trying to, they're using them as shields," Trump said on "Fox and Friends." "A horrible thing. They're using them as shields. But we're fighting a very politically correct war."
"And the other thing is with the terrorists, you have to take out their families," he added. "When you get these terrorists you have to take out their families. They care about their lives, don't kid yourself. But they say they don't care about their lives. You have to take out their families."
According to a new report from The Intercept, nearly 90 percent of people killed in drone strikes over one five-month period in Afghanistan "were not the intended targets" of the attacks. Last month, former drone operators spoke out against the Obama administration's lethal program in the Middle East. One ex-operator stated that the program is "good at killing people, just not the right ones."
Trump, who has been leading the Republican primary polls since August, has ratcheted up his rhetoric on terror in the wake of the deadly Paris attacks last month. At a recent campaign rally in Ohio, the mogul said he would bring back waterboarding, a practice that simulates drowning, for the purpose of interrogation.
"If it doesn't work, they deserve it anyway for what they're doing to us," he said.
