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Amnesty shines spotlight on CIA drone strike reports

Amnesty warn US has 'failed to commit to conduct investigations' on drone strikes

Amnesty International called on the US to investigate reports of civilians killed and wounded by CIA drone strikes in Pakistan.

The rights watchdog group also released a new report providing details of the victims of the attacks, including a 68-year-old grandmother who was hit while farming with her grandchildren.

Mamana Bibi's grandchildren told the group that she had been killed by missile fire in October 2012 as she was collecting vegetables in a family field in North Waziristan.

Three of her grandchildren were wounded in the strike.

The US claims its CIA drone programme is a key weapon against insurgent groups, but the strikes kill large numbers of civilians.

An even deadlier incident noted in the Will I Be Next? report occurred in North Waziristan in July last year.

A volley of missiles hit a tent where a group of men had gathered for an evening meal after work, then a second volley struck those who came to help the wounded, one of a number of attacks that have hit rescuers.

Eighteen labourers with no links to militant groups died.

President Barack Obama claimed in May that the US does not conduct a drone strike unless there is "near-certainty that no civilians will be killed or injured."

But Amnesty said the US is so secretive about the contoversial strikes that there is no way to tell what steps it takes to prevent civilian casualties, warning the US had "failed to commit to conduct investigations."

Several different organisations have tracked civilian casualties of drone strikes.

They say that the Pakistan attacks have killed between 2,065 and 3,613, of which between 153 and 926 were civilians.

Amnesty said it was concerned that these attacks and others may constitute extrajudicial executions or war crimes.

"Drone strikes may be lawful in some circumstances," conceded Amnesty Pakistan researcher Mustafa Qadri.

"But it is hard to believe that a group of labourers, or an elderly woman surrounded by her grandchildren, were endangering anyone at all, let alone posing an imminent threat to the UDS.

"We cannot find any justification for these killings."

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