Islamabad: CIA drones pounded Pakistani soil with renewed intensity in January 2013, a report has said.
According to the Bureau of Investigative Journalism’s monthly report based on the ‘Covert Drone War’ project, January saw six drone strikes in merely nine days, a number exceeded only by August 2012.
Compared to the January of last year, the number of strikes doubled this year, the Express Tribune reports.
According to the report, in Pakistan, there have been a total of 362 US drone attacks since 2004, most of them, 85.6 percent, during the tenure of incumbent President Barack Obama.
Although it is difficult to ascertain the exact number of casualties, the Bureau believes 2,629 to 3,461 people were killed and 1,267 to 1,431 wounded.
Of the total fatalities, 475 to 891 were civilians, including 176 children.
The January drone strikes killed 27 to 54 people, of which 0 to 2 were reportedly civilians, the report said.
The very first strike of the month killed prized target Mullah Nazir, who had been on the CIA hit-list for a long time, and had been involved with multiple attacks on NATO and Afghan forces in Afghanistan, it added.
ANI
First Published: Saturday, February 02, 2013, 14:02