Boys' killing belies US claim on drone strikes
* From: The Australian
TWO boys have been killed by a missile fired from a US drone only three days after attending a public meeting to draw attention to the mounting civilian death toll from drone strikes in Pakistan.
Tariq Aziz, 16, and his 12-year-old cousin, Waheed Khan, were killed last Monday on their way to Tariq's aunt's home in Norak near the Afghan border, in a strike that undermines US claims that missiles targeting militants cause no civilian casualties.
Tariq had attended a traditional tribal meeting, or loya jirga, in Islamabad, where digital cameras donated by Jemima Khan, the former wife of the cricketer Imran Khan, were distributed to tribal leaders to enable them to record the effect of drone strikes.
Tariq, a keen computer user, had volunteered to help upload the pictures and was killed 72 hours after returning home.
The Aziz family said Tariq had no connection with the Taliban or al-Qa'ida.
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Clive Stafford Smith, a British human rights lawyer who helped organise the meeting, believes a homing device may have been placed in Tariq's car, possibly as a "warning" to others not to raise objections to the drone killings.
"It is certain the CIA had informants at the jirga," he said at the weekend.
"It seems likely that one of the stooges . . . reported to his American paymaster that he had identified another militant, and a GPS tracking device was later attached to the car."
The US has launched more than 300 drone strikes in Pakistan since 2004, killing more than 2000 people. The rate of attacks has increased sharply in the past two years, with strikes now taking place about every fourth day in the tribal areas.
Tariq's uncle Noor Kalaam said he felt angry about the killing.
"What have these two little boys done to the Americans?"
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