IT WAS, Britain's prime minister conceded, “a new departure”. David Cameron’s announcement to the House of Commons on September 7th that a Royal Air Force (RAF) Reaper drone had targeted and killed Reyaad Khan (pictured, at left) in Syria, an Islamic State (IS) fighter from Cardiff and a British citizen, raised as many questions as he was prepared to answer. The strike, which killed two others who were travelling in the same vehicle, including another Briton, took place on August 21st near IS's stronghold in Raqqa. While America has for many years used drones for the targeted killing of terrorists in places such as the tribal territories in Pakistan and Yemen, it is the first time that Britain has done so. Previously, RAF drones have been used for lethal strikes in Afghanistan, but only when British or allied forces were threatened by fighting on the ground.
Mr Cameron’s defence of the attack and its legality was based upon intelligence that identified Mr Khan as actively engaged in the planning of “barbaric” attacks on the West. Military commemorations in Britain, said Mr Cameron, were high on the list of his targets. A key...Continue reading
via Brian Rushton, Britain conducts a drone assassination
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