{"id":3134,"date":"2014-05-27T12:52:08","date_gmt":"2014-05-27T18:52:08","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/peaceeconomyproject.org\/wordpress\/?p=3134"},"modified":"2014-05-27T12:52:08","modified_gmt":"2014-05-27T18:52:08","slug":"most-us-drone-strikes-in-pakistan-attack-houses","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/peaceeconomyproject.org\/wordpress\/most-us-drone-strikes-in-pakistan-attack-houses\/","title":{"rendered":"Most US drone strikes in Pakistan attack houses"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>by\u00a0<a title=\"Alice K Ross and Jack Serle\" href=\"http:\/\/www.thebureauinvestigates.com\/author\/jack-serle\/\">Alice K Ross and Jack Serle<\/a>, The Bureau of Investigative Journalism<br \/>\n<a href=\"http:\/\/www.thebureauinvestigates.com\/2014\/05\/23\/most-us-drone-strikes-in-pakistan-attack-houses\/\">click here for original article<\/a><\/p>\n<p>Domestic buildings have been hit by drone strikes more than any other type of target in the CIA\u2019s 10-year campaign in the tribal regions of northern Pakistan, new research reveals.<\/p>\n<p>By way of contrast, since 2008, in neighbouring Afghanistan drone strikes on buildings\u00a0have been\u00a0banned in all but the most urgent situations, as part of measures to\u00a0protect civilian lives. But a new investigative\u00a0project by the Bureau,\u00a0<a title=\"Forensic Architecture\" href=\"http:\/\/www.forensic-architecture.org\/\" target=\"_blank\">Forensic Architecture<\/a>, a research project\u00a0based at London\u2019s Goldsmiths University, and New York-based\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/www.situresearch.com\/\" target=\"_blank\">Situ Research<\/a>, reveals that in Pakistan, domestic buildings continue to be the most frequent target of drone attacks.<\/p>\n<p>The project\u00a0examines, for the first time,\u00a0the types of target attacked in each drone strike \u2013 be they\u00a0houses, vehicles or madrassas (religious schools) \u2013 and the time of day the attack took place.<\/p>\n<p>It reveals:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Over three-fifths\u00a0(61%) of all drone strikes in Pakistan targeted domestic buildings, with\u00a0at least 132 houses destroyed, in more than 380 strikes.<\/li>\n<li>At least 222 civilians are estimated to be among the 1,500 or more people killed in attacks on such buildings. In the past 18 months, reports of civilian casualties in attacks on any targets have almost completely vanished, but historically almost one civilian was killed, on average, in attacks on houses.<\/li>\n<li>The CIA has consistently attacked houses have throughout the 10-year campaign in Pakistan.<\/li>\n<li>The time of an attack affects how many people \u2013 and how many civilians \u2013 are likely to die. Houses are twice as likely to be attacked\u00a0at night compared with\u00a0in the afternoon. Strikes that took place in the evening, when families likely to be at home and gathered together, were particularly deadly.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong>Get the data \u2013\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/www.thebureauinvestigates.com\/2014\/05\/23\/get-the-data-what-the-drones-strike\/\" target=\"_blank\">What the drones strike<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n<p><img data-recalc-dims=\"1\"  title=\"\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.thebureauinvestigates.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/05\/Platform-grab-481x400.jpg?resize=364%2C303\"  alt=\"Platform-grab-481x400 Most US drone strikes in Pakistan attack houses\"  width=\"364\" height=\"303\" \/>Researchers\u00a0analysed\u00a0thousands of reports including contemporaneous media reports, witness testimonies and field investigations to gather the data on drone strikes in Pakistan\u2019s Federally Administered Tribal Areas (Fata). The\u00a0data is also presented in an\u00a0<a title=\"Where the Drones Strike\" href=\"http:\/\/wherethedronesstrike.com\/\" target=\"_blank\">interactive online map<\/a>, titled\u00a0<a title=\"Where the Drones Strike\" href=\"http:\/\/wherethedronesstrike.com\/\" target=\"_blank\">Where the Drones Strike<\/a>, showing the location and targets of each strike.<\/p>\n<p>The research reveals a\u00a0continued policy of\u00a0targeting buildings throughout the CIA\u2019s campaign in Pakistan, despite an instruction in Afghanistan from the\u00a0International Security Assistance Force (Isaf), the body\u00a0which commands foreign operations in the country, that forces operate under the rule that \u2018all compounds are assumed to house civilians unless proven to be clear\u2019.<\/p>\n<p>This rule has been in place since at least September 2008 when, according to a\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/www.thenation.com\/article\/176262\/mass-casualty-attacks-afghan-war\">leaked classified report<\/a>, Isaf introduced a Tactical Directive that \u2018specifically called for limiting airstrikes on compounds to avoid civilian casualties when Isaf forces are not in imminent danger\u2019.<\/p>\n<h4>A definition<\/h4>\n<p>In both Afghanistan and the tribal areas of Pakistan people tend to live in buildings that are often described as \u2018compounds\u2019.\u00a0Mansur Mahsud, director of Islamabad-based organisation the Fata\u00a0Research Center, describes the way people live in these areas:\u00a0\u2018One compound is used by many families, like brothers and first cousins, although every family has their own portion or space in the compound. The compounds in these agencies are quite big \u2013 most would measure half an acre or more. Normally you will find 20-25 people living in one compound, and in some cases you will find more than 50.\u2019<\/p>\n<p>When drones attack buildings in Pakistan, the target is typically described in media reports as a \u2018compound\u2019 \u2013 and often as a \u2018militant compound\u2019. But these are usually domestic structures, which are often rented or commandeered by militant groups.<\/p>\n<p>A British commander\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/www.telegraph.co.uk\/news\/uknews\/defence\/9552547\/The-air-force-men-who-fly-drones-in-Afghanistan-by-remote-control.html\">told the Daily Telegraph<\/a>\u00a0in 2012 that the UK\u00a0had stopped using the word \u2018compound\u2019: \u2018We\u2019re trying to get it into the guys\u2019 heads that this is not compound no 28, it\u2019s 34 Acacia Drive \u2013 so you don\u2019t hit it,\u2019 he said.<\/p>\n<p>A Ministry of Defence spokesman told the Bureau this is\u00a0not official policy, but is\u00a0\u2018very much aligned to our teaching and thinking\u2019. The UK does not carry out drone strikes in Pakistan.<\/p>\n<p>A US official told the Bureau: \u2018US counterterrorism operations are precise, lawful, and effective. The United States takes extraordinary care to make sure that its counterterrorism actions are in accordance with all applicable domestic and international law, and that they are consistent with US values and policy.\u2019<\/p>\n<p>While, over the 10 years of the drone campaign in Pakistan, strikes on houses have been\u00a0more dangerous for civilians, in the past 18 months there have been no confirmed reports of civilian casualties in any attacks \u2013 despite a rise in the proportion of strikes that hit houses.<\/p>\n<p>Mahsud says this is partly due to changes in behaviour on the ground. In the early years of the drone campaign, sympathetic locals would sometimes host the militants as their guests, he said, and carry on\u00a0living in their properties. But the threat of drone strikes means that now, when militants come to stay, civilians usually leave.<\/p>\n<p>There is little locals can do about the prospect\u00a0of their buildings being damaged, he adds: \u2018You cannot say no to the Taliban in Fata.\u2019<\/p>\n<p>The research also reveals that on average more civilians die when a building is targeted than when a vehicle is hit.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.thebureauinvestigates.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/05\/Overall-casualty-rates-for-different-target-types1.png\"><img data-recalc-dims=\"1\"  title=\"\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.thebureauinvestigates.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/05\/Overall-casualty-rates-for-different-target-types1.png?resize=598%2C371\"  alt=\"Overall-casualty-rates-for-different-target-types1 Most US drone strikes in Pakistan attack houses\"  width=\"598\" height=\"371\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>It is also possible that more civilians die\u00a0in attacks on buildings than the reporting indicates. The Bureau\u2019s Naming the Dead project has found that the\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/www.thebureauinvestigates.com\/namingthedead\/hidden-even-in-death-just-two-women-killed-by-drones-are-identified\/?lang=en\">deaths of women<\/a>\u00a0are particularly vulnerable to being underreported.<\/p>\n<h4>Women and children<\/h4>\n<p>Women and children are more likely to stay indoors\u00a0and therefore less likely to be seen \u2018by [a] drone operator monitoring the structure,\u2019 says\u00a0Susan Schuppli, senior research fellow at Forensic Architecture and the project coordinator. Women and children\u2019s \u2018relative seclusion within private space makes them particularly vulnerable to becoming an unknown casualty when a strike occurs\u2019, she said.<\/p>\n<p>Forensic Architecture interviewed a woman who survived a 2010 drone strike. Originally from Germany, she had moved to Pakistan with her husband and his brother. She and a female friend were in the house one evening, when a group of men sitting in the courtyard was attacked. Her son, aged two, was outside the compound walls with his father, who had gone to smoke a cigarette.<\/p>\n<p>\u2018While we were eating, we heard a very loud bang. The house shook and a lot of earth fell on us from the roof\u2026 everything was covered in thick smoke,\u2019 she told researchers. In the courtyard, she saw \u2018a big black hole where the rocket hit\u2019, where the men had been sitting to eat.<\/p>\n<p>Everything was burned, she continued. There were \u2018pieces of cloth, and metal from the rocket \u2026 everywhere there were bits similar to the pieces of flesh of the three men, which were scattered everywhere.\u2019<\/p>\n<p>Her brother-in-law was killed, along with at least four others.<\/p>\n<p>The US official told the Bureau: \u2018The US government only targets terrorists who pose a continuing and imminent threat to the American people. Period. Any suggestion otherwise is flat wrong. Furthermore, before any strike is taken, there must be near-certainty that no civilians will be killed or injured \u2013 the highest standard we can set.\u2019<\/p>\n<p>Drone strikes are just one of many threats to property in Fata. Localised violence \u2013 between rival militant groups, and between the Army and militant groups \u2013 is a frequent occurrence, killing civilians and destroying buildings. Since December the Pakistan military has carried out several large-scale bombings on suspected militant targets, including in urban areas. Scores of civilians have reportedly been killed.<\/p>\n<p>At least a quarter of drone strikes in Pakistan hit vehicles \u2013 cars, motorbikes and pickup trucks, according to the research, and these attacks were significantly less likely than average to harm civilians.\u00a0There have been\u00a0no confirmed civilian casualties in strikes on vehicles at night.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.thebureauinvestigates.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/05\/Domestics-and-vehicles-hit-time-of-day1.png\"><img data-recalc-dims=\"1\"  title=\"\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.thebureauinvestigates.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/05\/Domestics-and-vehicles-hit-time-of-day1.png?resize=600%2C371\"  alt=\"Domestics-and-vehicles-hit-time-of-day1 Most US drone strikes in Pakistan attack houses\"  width=\"600\" height=\"371\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>\u2018Civilians usually avoid going out at night, because Taliban militants do not allow people to venture out of their homes at night without a valid reason,\u2019 said Mansur Mahsud, of\u00a0the Fata\u00a0Research Center.<\/p>\n<p>The Bureau\u2019s analysis found that strikes on mosques and madrassas \u2013 religious schools \u2013 are the deadliest. At least eight\u00a0strikes have hit such targets, killing over 17 people on average in each attack. At least 99 civilians have reportedly been\u00a0killed in total.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_58259\"><a href=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.thebureauinvestigates.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/07\/72299001.jpg\"><img data-recalc-dims=\"1\"  title=\"\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.thebureauinvestigates.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/07\/72299001-658x395.jpg?resize=620%2C372\"  alt=\"72299001-658x395 Most US drone strikes in Pakistan attack houses\"  width=\"620\" height=\"372\" \/><\/a><figcaption><em>The funeral for victims of the October 2006 attack on the Chenegai madrassa (STR\/AFP\/Getty Images)<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>The figures for strikes on mosques and madrassas are skewed by a particularly bloody strike that hit a religious school in Chenegai, Bajaur on October 30 2006, reportedly killing 81 people. But even excluding this event, strikes on madrassas and mosques remain far more deadly \u2013 including to\u00a0civilians \u2013 than those reported to have hit other targets. Excluding the Chenegai strike, the civilian casualty rate is nine times that of strikes on vehicles \u2013 2.7 for each strike on average.<\/p>\n<p>But here, again, the care taken over the past year to avoid civilian casualties appears to be bucking these historic trends.<\/p>\n<p>The\u00a0Chenegai attack flattened the building and killed scores of civilians. By contrast, last November a drone strike targeted a madrassa in Hangu, in the first drone strike to hit\u00a0beyond Pakistan\u2019s\u00a0tribal regions. The attack took out a single room.<\/p>\n<p>Although there were reportedly\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/dawn.com\/news\/1057599\/at-least-eight-killed-in-drone-strike-on-hangu-seminary\">up to 80 students<\/a>\u00a0in the building, the strike killed at least six men, allegedly militants.<\/p>\n<p>Opposition party leader Imran Khan claimed in a press conference that four children died\u00a0in the attack, but\u00a0at the time of writing the Bureau\u00a0had been unable to confirm any civilian deaths.<\/p>\n<p>An unnamed US official later denied to the\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/www.washingtonpost.com\/world\/us-drone-hits-islamic-seminary-in-pakistan\/2013\/11\/21\/c8cd26d6-5285-11e3-9ee6-2580086d8254_story.html\">Washington Post<\/a>\u00a0that the strike hit a madrassa, saying it targeted \u2018a compound associated with the Haqqani Network\u2019 near the madrassa.<\/p>\n<p>The difference between these two strikes hints at how the US has adjusted\u00a0its tactics over the course of the campaign.<\/p>\n<p>US drones fire\u00a0Hellfire missiles and the much more powerful GBU laser-guided bombs. The Hellfire is a product of the Cold War, designed to destroy Soviet tanks. But the US has adapted\u00a0the drone-mounted versions, lowering the explosive yield twice, according to Chris Woods, investigative journalist and author of forthcoming book\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/www.hurstpublishers.com\/book\/sudden-justice\/\" target=\"_blank\">Sudden Justice<\/a>: America\u2019s Secret Drone Wars.<\/p>\n<p>Reducing explosive power \u2018makes a great deal of sense\u2019, Woods adds. \u2018A missile designed to bore through thick Soviet armour when used against mud-brick houses in Pakistan is going to have pretty catastrophic effects.\u2019<\/p>\n<h4>Specialist weapons<\/h4>\n<p>The\u00a0US has added new Hellfire variants\u00a0to its drone arsenal, according to\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/www.amazon.co.uk\/Predator-Remote-control-Afghanistan-Pilots-Story\/dp\/0760338965\">a former drone pilot<\/a>. These new variants include specialised missiles for attacking\u00a0vehicles, others\u00a0with a delayed fuse designed to smash through walls and detonate inside buildings, and anti-personnel missiles with a metal sleeve that splinters on detonation.<\/p>\n<p>When drone strikes started in Pakistan, the CIA only had access to small fleet of slow Predator drones,\u00a0carrying\u00a0up to\u00a0two Hellfire missiles. But when the CIA acquired\u00a0larger, more powerful Reaper drones, larger and more powerful bombs was added to their armoury.<\/p>\n<p>Meanwhile, the\u00a0GBU-12 and GBU-38 laser-guided bombs have at least five times the explosive power of a Hellfire and, according to Woods, are\u00a0\u2018used when they want to be sure of a kill,\u2019 particularly \u2018when high-value targets are involved\u2019.<\/p>\n<p>The data shows the constantly shifting nature of the drone campaign, as the CIA and their targets adapt their tactics and behaviour in a game of cat-and-mouse.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.thebureauinvestigates.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/05\/Targets-hit-per-strike-year-by-year2.png\"><img data-recalc-dims=\"1\"  title=\"\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.thebureauinvestigates.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/05\/Targets-hit-per-strike-year-by-year2.png?resize=600%2C371\"  alt=\"Targets-hit-per-strike-year-by-year2 Most US drone strikes in Pakistan attack houses\"  width=\"600\" height=\"371\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>\u2018When vehicles used by militants began to be targeted frequently, militants decreased their use of vehicles to avoid drone strikes,\u2019 Mahsud says. \u2018Now in many areas, militants travel on foot from one place to another.\u2019<\/p>\n<p>The Bureau has not recorded a similar change in Yemen where vehicles are the most common target. The US has been striking al Qaeda with drones since 2002 when it killed six alleged militants in a strike on a car.<\/p>\n<p>The drone strikes on vehicles in Yemen do kill civilians. However, they\u00a0are generally targeted when in sparsely populated areas, outside urban spaces. This appears to be a conscious effort to reduce collateral damage. In general the attacks in Yemen are reportedly less lethal for civilians. In Yemen on average one civilian is killed in every other strike whereas in Pakistan, on average more than one civilian is killed in each strike.<\/p>\n<p>\u2018As we\u2019ve seen in Yemen, the CIA is careful in what it chooses to target \u2013 for example the deliberate focussing on moving vehicles between towns to limit the potential for collateral damage,\u2019 said Woods. \u2018What is so shocking to think about in Pakistan is that the CIA has continued to target homes in villages even up until 2013.\u2019<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>by\u00a0Alice K Ross and Jack Serle, The Bureau of Investigative Journalism click here for original article Domestic buildings have been hit by drone strikes more than any other type of target in the CIA\u2019s 10-year campaign in the tribal regions of northern Pakistan, new research reveals. By way of contrast, since 2008, in neighbouring Afghanistan [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"nf_dc_page":"","om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[8],"tags":[168],"class_list":["post-3134","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news","tag-drones"],"acf":[],"aioseo_notices":[],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/peaceeconomyproject.org\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3134","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/peaceeconomyproject.org\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/peaceeconomyproject.org\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/peaceeconomyproject.org\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/peaceeconomyproject.org\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3134"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/peaceeconomyproject.org\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3134\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3137,"href":"https:\/\/peaceeconomyproject.org\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3134\/revisions\/3137"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/peaceeconomyproject.org\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3134"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/peaceeconomyproject.org\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3134"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/peaceeconomyproject.org\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3134"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}