Are drone strikes doing more harm than good in the fight against ISIS?

DroneThe death by drone of Jihadi John earlier in the week again brought to the fore the increasingly fraught debate over such state-sanctioned killings, which would, in a time before the War on Terror, have been termed assassinations.

Jeremy Corbyn was predictably castigated by some for remarking that it would have been better for Emwazi to be brought to trial, but many have pointed out that similar sentiments have been expressed by David Haines’ widow, and Majid Freeman, a friend of Alan Henning. Continue reading

The use of drones should be brought under international law

The first legal hearing in Britain is taking place over UK participation in US drone strikes in Pakistan. The case has been brought by a man whose father was killed by a strike from an unmanned aircraft, and he is seeking to have the sharing of UK locational intelligence with US drone controllers declared illegal.

There are good grounds for this. US drones have killed targets in at least 6 countries: Afghanistan, Pakistan, Yemen, Iraq, Somalia and Libya. Yet the only one where the US is officially at war is Afghanistan, and therefore it is argued that drone attacks on the other 5 are illegal under US law, and thence any UK participation is colluding with a war crime.

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