Wednesday, July 20, 2011

Victims of US drone attacks in Pakistan are mostly civilians...

Noor Behram remembers why he started on his mission to photograph the scenes of drone attacks in Pakistan. The reason was 12 dead people -- an entire family extinguished in what was officially a US attack on militants. But the 39-year-old, who works for Arabic language news network Al Jazeera, had sources in Waziristan who told him the official story was only half of the truth.

 He climbed in his car and travelled from his home in Miranshah to Shawal, the location of the bombing, and he saw something that remains burned into his mind: charred body parts and shredded clothes, hanging from the trees.

"In actuality an American helicopter had attacked a hotel where insurgents were allegedly hiding out," Behram said. "A family that lived on a neighboring slope heard the noise and watched the incident down in the valley. In this moment a US fighter jet roared over and shot a rocket at their home. Eight women and girls, along with four men, died."

But on that day, June 27, 2007, the reporter found no word of this family in the newspapers -- only news of killed extremists. The shock inspired him to photograph the unacknowledged death and suffering of civilian victims of the war in western Pakistan with the hope of publishing them someday. More...

Don't miss:
  1. Another massacre in Pakistan as US drones kill 45 people... 
  2. Twelve children killed in another US massacre in Afghanistan... 
  3. Massive protest in Pakistan against US drone attacks... 
  4. U.S. doesn't count civilians killed by drones...
  5. US drone attack massacres 38 elders in Pakistan...
  6. Obama's drone strikes take heavy toll on Pakistan's tribesmen...
  7. Drone porn: why killing "criminals" with drones is a war crime...

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