Son of Pakistani woman killed by U.S. drone strike pleads on Capitol Hill for an end to the drone campaign

By Joseph Straw for the New York Daily News.

WASHINGTON — The son of a 68-year-old Pakistani woman killed in an apparent errant U.S. drone strike pleaded on Capitol Hill Tuesday for an end to the campaign.

“I came here and I noticed during my first day that everyone lives peacefully here and it’s a nice life . . . no one lives in fear,” Rafiq ur Rehman said via a translator.

“And my hopes and my dreams are that my children too can live in a similar environment in North Waziristan,” said Rehman, whose mother, Mamana Bibi, was killed near her home last October.

The family’s story was highlighted in a recent Amnesty International report and is the subject of a documentary out Wednesday.

Reported civilian deaths in U.S. drone strikes fell from 70 in 2009 to just five last year, according to an analysis by the New America Foundation.

 


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