Half of US drone strikes in Pakistan not against al-Qaeda
Apr. 11, 2013 | RT News
A trove of leaked classified reports has confirmed what many had suspected – US drone kills in Pakistan are not the precision strikes against top-level al-Qaeda terrorists they are portrayed as by the Obama administration.
Instead, many of the attacks are aimed at suspected low-level tribal militants, who may pose no direct danger to the United States – and for many there appears to be little evidence to justify the assassinations.
Top secret documents obtained by McClatchy newspapers in the US show the locations, identities and numbers of those attacked and killed in Pakistan in 2006-8 and 2010-11, as well as explanations for why the targets were picked.
Yesterday’s News You Should Know: Saturday 9/22/2012
2012 diplomatic missions attacks: Demanding the disbandment of armed groups, hundreds of demonstrators attack Ansar al-Sharia and Islamist militia compounds in Benghazi, Libya. Eleven people die in the clashes. Libyan authorities re-take control of deserted strongholds. (AP)(AFP)(The Jerusalem Post)
Armed attacks
2012 diplomatic missions attacks: The Libyan government asks the population to discriminate among “legitimate and non-legitimate” militias; Raf Allah al-Sahati, Feb. 17 and Libya Shield are supposedly “legitimate” militias. (AP)
Syrian civil war: An online video appears to claim that the Free Syrian Army moved its headquarters from Turkey to “liberated areas” inside Syria; Reuters says in Idlib or Aleppo. (BBC)(Reuters)
Syrian civil war: The National Coordination Body, an internal civilian opposition umbrella group in Syria, is to hold a conference in Damascus on Sunday. According to Xinhua, the 28-party conference is cancelled due to internal divisions. (Reuters) (Xinhua)
Syrian civil war: Activists say dozens of civilians are killed throughout Syria by the Syrian government’s artillery shelling of cities. (Bloomberg)
Eight people die in clashes between Zaydi rebels and Salafis. The Zaidis oppose the nomination by al-Islah of new provincial leaders in northern Yemen. (Belga)(Middle East Online)
Arts and culture
The Musée du Louvre in Paris opens a new wing dedicated to Islamic art. It holds 3,000 artifacts from the seventh to the 19th century. An Egyptian Mamluk portal, disassembled in France since 1889, is shown for the first time. (AFP)
Disasters and accidents
The drunken driver of a car, speeding at nearly 200 kilometre (124 miles) per hour, hits a bus stop on Minskaya Street in Moscow. Seven pedestrians who were waiting for the bus were killed. (Ria Novosti) (Xinhua)
Law and crime
The Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Melbourne confirms the sexual abuse of more than 600 children by its priests since the 1930s. Bishop Denis Hart deplores the “figures” as “horrific and shameful”. Activists say the true number, in Victoria alone, is closer to 10,000. (BBC)
Politics and elections
The minister of railways in Pakistan, Ghulam Ahmad Bilour, offers a bounty of $100,000 (USD) to the person who kills the maker of Innocence of Muslims. (al-Jazeera)
