Drone War in Pakistan: Photos From the Ground Show Civilian Casualties

In the US, remote-controlled drones are considered great tools in the war on terror. For years Washington has sent these high-tech weapons into western Pakistan, lauding their precision. But a local journalist says he has photographic evidence that civilians are often the victims. Info

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.

"Most of the people are killed by American drones," he said. "But reports on these incidents also say that a certain number of militants have been killed."

Almost all of Behram’s photos come from locations in northern or southern Waziristan. They’ve been hit by rockets fired from drones manned from across the world – from control rooms in the US. "I can’t say how many extremists have been killed in reality," he says. "All I can say is that most of the victims are not militants, but those who aren’t involved. Mostly women and children."

A Child’s Foot, a Shattered Young Skull

Washington officials say there are almost no civilian victims any longer because the drone attacks are so precise. But Behram disagrees. "I estimate that for every dead extremist there are some 15 civilian victims," he said.

The photos are gruesome. One shows a boy with a shattered skull, another a child’s dismembered foot. Yet another shows a dead boy with a bandaged head. Bloodied school books appear in another. The body parts of an entire family litter building debris in another. The photos are so disturbing that SPIEGEL ONLINE has published only a few.

After visiting the sites of some 70 drone attacks in the last four years, Behram has seen more than 600 corpses. This work is a personal project, not in association with Al Jazeera, he said, explaining he wanted to see the truth for himself. But as a journalist in Pakistan, Behram earns little and had to borrow a camera from friends and relatives. Painfully detailed images are the result.

The work is also dangerous. Often, arriving shortly after an attack, Behram feared more shots might be fired.

Insomnia, and Other Disorders

He would help dig the dead and wounded out of the rubble, he said; he would tend to the injured. Only afterwards did he pull the camera from his pocket. He had to ask permission to use it from clan elders and Taliban commanders. He had to convince them he was not a spy, not one of the people who pass on coordinates for possible drone strikes to the CIA.

It’s impossible to double-check the veracity of his photographs. Almost no journalist can roam independently in Waziristan. But Behram’s claims about them do match up with the dates and locations of real drone strikes.

Now he’s sitting in a restaurant in the Pakistani capital of Islamabad. He wears a beige-colored outfit consisting of a knee-length cotton shirt, baggy pants and a matching Pashtun cap. He seems nervous and blinks a lot; his right eye squints a little. He’s not feeling so well, he says. No one feels well in Waziristan. Many people have psychological problems. "The worst part is the insomnia," he says. "The drones shoot mainly at our houses, and we always have to worry about being targets. How can you sleep well under those conditions?"

Read the rest of the article