UN Demands US Explain Drone Killings

The Obama administration can't just kill anyone it wants to with its flying robots, the UN's special rapporteur on extrajudicial, summary, or arbitrary executions declared overnight, issuing a report demanding the US justify its drone campaign and disclose its procedures for ensuring the attacks comply with international law and don't hit civilians. "Disclosure of these killings is critical to ensure accountability, justice, and reparation for victims or their families," the report said, according to Reuters.

Thousands have been killed in US drone strikes and "there has been a dramatic increase in their use over the past three years," the report said. International law requires that every effort be made to arrest suspects, in line with the "principles of necessity and proportionality," but the US makes no such effort. In a speech yesterday, the UN's High Commissioner for Human Rights said he'd visited drone strike sites in Pakistan, and said it was "unclear that all persons targeted are combatants." (More drone strike stories.)