US ‘war on terror’ has killed 500,000 people, claims report
About half a million people have died violently in Iraq, Afghanistan and Pakistan due to the US “war on terror” that was launched following the September 11 attacks in 2001, according to a study released on Thursday.
The report by Brown University’s Watson Institute for International and Public Affairs put the death toll at between 480,000 and 507,000 people - but said the actual number is likely higher.
“The new toll is a more than 110,000 increase over the last count, issued just two years ago in August 2016,” Brown said in a statement.
“Though the war on terror is often overlooked by the American public, press and lawmakers, the increased body count signals that, far from diminishing, this war remains intense.” The death toll includes insurgents, local police and security forces, civilians and US and allied troops. The report’s author, Neta Crawford, said many of those reported by US and local forces as militants may actually have been civilians.
WASHINGTON:
409 DRONE ATTACKS IN PAKISTAN SINCE 2004
A total of 409 US drone strike have been conducted in Pakistan since January 2004, in which 2,714 people were killed and 728 injured, according to a media report on Friday.
A majority of the strikes were conducted when the Pakistan People’s Party was in power between 2008 and 2012, the daily quoted officials of the National Counter-Terrorism Authority (Nacta) as saying. This period saw 336 strike, in which 2,282 people lost their lives and 658 were wounded.
The officials said 2010 alone saw 117 attacks, that cost 775 lives and injured 193.
Between 2013 and 2018, when the PML-N was in power, there were 65 drone strikes that killed 301 people and injured 70. Only two drone strikes have been conducted so far this year, in which one person was killed and another injured.
However, the top leadership of the Pakistani Taliban were killed in drone attacks.
The daily also quoted the officials as saying that 19,177 civilians and officials were killed and 47,869 injured in 18,850 terror-related attacks in Pakistan since 2001. These attacks, they said, mostly targeted law enforcement agencies and were carried out with bombs, grenades, mines, missiles, rockets and suicide bombers.
ISLAMABAD: