During the 1980s and 1990s, targeted killings were employed extensively by
death squads in El Salvador,
Nicaragua,
Colombia, and
Haiti within the context of civil unrest and war. Starting under the
George W. Bush administration, targeted killings became a frequent tactic of the
United States government in the
war on terror. Instances of targeted killing by the United States that have received significant attention include the
killing of Osama bin Laden in 2011 and the
killing of Ayman al-Zawahiri in 2022, as well as those of American citizens
Anwar al-Awlaki and his teenage son in 2011. Under the
Obama administration, use of targeted killings expanded, most frequently through use of
combat drones operating in
Afghanistan,
Pakistan or
Yemen.
American and drug cartels, 1980s Referring to killings by drug cartels in
Washington, D.C. in 1989, mayor
Marion Barry infamously stated, "Washington should not be called the murder capital of the world. We are the targeted-killing capital of the world." Barry said that "targeted killings" by D.C.'s cartels were comparable to those during the days of "
Al Capone and
Eliot Ness" at the time of
Prohibition in the United States. Similarly, drug-related "mob hits" in Moscow during the 1990s were euphemistically described as "targeted killings" by the Cox News Service and
Atlanta Journal-Constitution.
Central and South America participants. The U.S.-backed
Operation Condor was a campaign of political repression and
state terror in Latin American right-wing dictatorships involving assassination of political opponents and dissidents. The National Security Archive reported, "Prominent victims of Condor include two former Uruguayan legislators and a former Bolivian president,
Juan José Torres, murdered in Buenos Aires, a former Chilean Minister of the Interior,
Bernardo Leighton, as well as former Chilean ambassador
Orlando Letelier and his 26-year-old American colleague,
Ronni Moffitt, assassinated by a car bomb in downtown Washington D.C." In 1986, the human rights group
Americas Watch released a report stating that death squads and armed forces under President
José Napoleón Duarte in
El Salvador had carried out 240 targeted killings throughout 1985. The report relied upon figures provided by the
Roman Catholic Church and included allegations of torture and
summary executions. Politically motivated targeted killings of trade unionists and activists were also recorded in
Haiti and
Colombia during the late 1980s and 1990s. Targeted killings linked to the drug trade and paramilitary organizations including
FARC and the
United Self-Defense Forces of Colombia (AUC) resulted in large numbers of deaths among human rights and political activists, and women and children, throughout the 1990s.
North America Use by United States government An early example of American targeted killing is
Operation Vengeance during World War II. This counterattack shot down the plane of
Isoroku Yamamoto, the senior planner of the
attack on Pearl Harbor. (pictured),
Santo Trafficante and other mobsters to
assassinate Fidel Castro. During the
Vietnam War, the
Phoenix Program targeted political leadership of the
Viet Cong for assassination. During the period 1976–2001, there was an American norm against targeted killing. The United States has made targeted killing—the deliberate assassination of a known terrorist outside the country's territory, usually by airstrike—an essential part of its counter-terrorism strategy. Further support for the U.S. government's use of drone strike tactics is found in a report found in the Journal of Strategic Security concerning the surgical nature of drone strikes for use in a populated area. The author concedes, "Indeed the tactic of using drones promises the ability of eliminating enemies in complex environments, while minimizing the political implications of resorting to war." The domestic legislative basis offered to justify drone strikes is the
Authorization for Use of Military Force Against Terrorists (AUMF), a joint resolution of both houses of Congress passed exactly one week after 11 September 2001. The AUMF permits the President to use "all necessary and appropriate force against those nations, organizations, or persons he determines planned, authorized, committed, or aided the terrorist attacks that occurred on 11 September 2001, or harbored such organizations or persons". with academics such as Gregory Johnsen and Charles Schmitz, media figures (
Jeremy Scahill,
Glenn Greenwald,
James Traub), civil rights groups (i.e. the
American Civil Liberties Union) and ex-
CIA station chief in
Islamabad,
Robert Grenier, have criticized targeted killings as a form of
extrajudicial killings, which may be illegal under both
United States and
international law. In early 2010, with President Barack Obama's approval,
Anwar al-Awlaki became the first U.S. citizen to be approved for targeted killing by the
Central Intelligence Agency (CIA). Awlaki was killed in a drone strike in September 2011. A
Reuters report analysing the killing of 500 "militants" by US drones between 2008 and 2010 found that only 8% of those killed were mid- to top-tier organisers or leaders; the rest were unidentified foot soldiers. , 2002–2017
The Intercept reported, "Between January 2012 and February 2013,
U.S. special operations airstrikes [in northeastern Afghanistan] killed more than 200 people. Of those, only 35 were the intended targets. During one five-month period of the operation, according to the documents, nearly 90 percent of the people killed in airstrikes were not the intended targets." According to analysis by
Reprieve, 874 people were killed, including 142 children, in drone strikes in Pakistan that targeted 24 people successfully and unsuccessfully, and, in numerous failed attempts to kill
Ayman al-Zawahri, 76 children and 29 adults were killed. 81 insurgent leaders in Pakistan have been killed.
Drone strikes in Yemen are estimated to have killed 846–1,758 militants and 116–225 civilians. 57
Al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula leaders are confirmed to have been killed.
Obama administration position on combat drones In a speech titled "The Ethics and Efficacy of the President's Counterterrorism Strategy"
John O. Brennan, Assistant to the President for Homeland Security and Counterterrorism, outlined on 30 April 2012 at the
Wilson Center the use of
combat drones to kill members of
al-Qaeda by the
US Federal government under President
Barack Obama. John Brennan acknowledged for the first time that the US government uses drones to kill selected members of al-Qaeda. He justified the use of drones both from domestic law and international law point of view. With respect to domestic law Brennan stated, "as a matter of domestic law, the
Constitution empowers the President to protect the nation from any imminent threat of attack. The
Authorization for Use of Military Force (AUMF) passed by Congress after the 11 September attacks authorizes the president "to use all necessary and appropriate force" against those nations, organizations and individuals responsible for 9/11. There is nothing in the AUMF that restricts the use of military force against al-Qa'ida to
Afghanistan." The justification by Brennan built upon remarks by US top officials like the State Department's top lawyer
Harold Hongju Koh, US Attorney General
Eric Holder, the US Defense Department general counsel
Jeh Johnson and President Obama himself, who defended the use of drones outside of so-called "hot battlefields" like Afghanistan. , former director of the
Central Intelligence Agency and chief counter-terrorism advisor to U.S. President
Barack Obama In 2011/2012, the process for selecting targets outside of warzones was altered so that power was concentrated in the hands of a group of people in the
White House centered around White House counterterror chief John Brennan. Under the new plan, Brennan's staff compiles the potential target list and runs the names past agencies such as the State Department at a weekly White House meeting. According to
The New York Times, President Obama has placed himself at the helm of a top secret process to designate terrorists for kill or capture, reserving the final say on approving lethal action, and signs off every strike in Yemen, Somalia and Pakistan. U.S. congressional oversight over the targeted killing operations increased as the drone program intensified under the Obama administration. Once a month, a group of staff members from the House and Senate intelligence committees would watch videos of the latest drone strikes, review intelligence that was used to justify each drone strike, and sometimes examine telephone intercepts and after-the-fact evidence, such as the CIA's assessment of who was hit. The procedure used by House and Senate intelligence committees to monitor CIA drone strikes was set up largely at the request of Senator
Dianne Feinstein who became determined to ensure that it was as precise as the CIA had been claiming. "That's been a concern of mine from the beginning," Feinstein said in little-noticed comments after the
raid that killed Osama bin Laden in May 2011. "I asked that this effort be established. It has been. The way in which this is being done is very careful." While the Bush administration had put emphasis on killing significant members of al Qaeda, the use of combat drones underwent a quiet and unheralded shift during the Obama administration to focus increasingly on killing militant foot soldiers rather than high-value targets according to CNN National Security Analyst
Peter Bergen. Bergen noted: "To the extent that the targets of drone attacks can be ascertained, under Bush, al Qaeda members accounted for 25% of all drone targets compared to 40% for Taliban targets. Under Obama, only 8% of targets were al Qaeda compared to just over 50% for Taliban targets." The work to codify U.S. drone policy began in summer 2011. "There was concern that the levers might no longer be in our hands," said one unnamed U.S. official. With a continuing debate about the proper limits of drone strikes, Obama did not want to leave an "amorphous" program to his successor, the official said. The effort, which would have been rushed to completion by January had
Mitt Romney won, will now be finished at a more leisurely pace, the official said. In a letter dated 22 May 2013 to the chairman of the U.S. Senate Judiciary committee,
Patrick J. Leahy, U.S. attorney general Eric Holder wrote that the United States will use lethal force by combat drones "in a foreign country against a U.S. citizen who is a senior operational leader of al Qa'ida or its associated forces, and who is actively engaged in planning to kill Americans, in the following circumstances: (1) the U.S. government has determined, after a thorough and careful review, that the individual poses an imminent threat of violent attack against the United States; (2) capture is not feasible; and (3) the operation would be conducted in a manner consistent with applicable law of war principles." In a Presidential Policy Guidance entitled "U.S. Policy Standards and Procedures for the Use of Force in Counterterrorism Operations Outside the United States and Areas of Active Hostilities" from May 2013 the United States government stated that lethal force by combat drones "will be used only to prevent or stop attacks against U.S. persons, and even then, only when capture is not feasible and no other reasonable alternatives exist to address the threat effectively". The U.S. government further declared, "lethal force will be used outside areas of active hostilities only when the following preconditions are met: • First, there must be a legal basis for using lethal force. • Second, the United States will use lethal force only against a target that poses a continuing, imminent threat to U.S. persons. • Third, the following criteria must be met before lethal action may be taken: :# Near certainty that the terrorist target is present; :# Near certainty that non-combatants will not be injured or killed; :# An assessment that capture is not feasible at the time of the operation; :# An assessment that the relevant governmental authorities in the country where action is contemplated cannot or will not effectively address the threat to U.S. persons; and :# An assessment that no other reasonable alternatives exist to effectively address the threat to U.S. persons. "It is a hard fact that US strikes have resulted in civilian casualties," he said, adding, "These deaths will haunt us. But as commander-in-chief I must weigh these heartbreaking tragedies against the alternative. To do nothing in the face of terrorist networks would invite far more civilian casualties." Obama said new guidance allowed targeting only those terrorists posing "a continuing and imminent threat to the American people", which administration officials said meant only individuals planning attacks on the U.S. homeland or against U.S. persons abroad. Obama defended the use of drones as just because America "is at war with al Qaeda, the Taliban and their associated forces". To stop terrorists from gaining a foothold, drones will be deployed according to Obama, but only when there is an imminent threat; no hope of capturing the targeted terrorist; "near certainty" that civilians won't be harmed; and "there are no other governments capable of effectively addressing the threat".
Human Rights Watch said that in Yemen more civilians were killed than admitted by the Obama administration, while Amnesty International said the same of drone strikes in Pakistan. Caitlin Hayden, a White House spokeswoman, declined to comment on the reports, but said in an e-mail statement: "As the President emphasized, the use of lethal force, including from remotely piloted aircraft, commands the highest level of attention and care." While the U.S. government is considering whether to kill an American abroad suspected of planning terrorist attacks and how to do so legally under new stricter targeting policy issued in 2013,
The Intercept reported that the U.S. government is using primarily NSA surveillance to target people for drone strikes overseas. In its report
The Intercept the author details the flawed methods which are used to locate targets for lethal drone strikes, resulting in the deaths of innocent people. According to
The Washington Post, NSA analysts and collectors (i.e. NSA personnel who control electronic surveillance equipment) use the NSA's sophisticated surveillance capabilities to track individual targets geographically and in real time, while drones and tactical units aim their weaponry against those targets to take them out. NBC News released in February 2014 an undated Department of Justice White paper entitled "Lawfulness of a Lethal Operation Directed Against a U.S. Citizen who is a Senior Operational Leader of Al Qa'ida or An Associated Force" in which the Obama administration concludes that the U.S. government can order the killing of American citizens if they are believed to be "senior operational leaders" of al-Qaida or "an associated force"—even if there is no intelligence indicating they are engaged in an active plot to attack the U.S. However any such targeted killing operation by the United States would have to comply with the four fundamental law-of-war principles governing the use of force which are necessity, distinction, proportionality and humanity – i.e., the avoidance of unnecessary suffering. (Page 8 of On 21 April 2014, the United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit overturned the above-mentioned December 2012 ruling by U.S. District Judge
Colleen McMahon and ruled that the Obama administration must release documents justifying its drone-killings of Americans and foreigners. The 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeal released on 23 June 2014 a July 2010 memo by then U.S. Justice Department's Office of Legal Counsel David Barron which outlined the rationale for killing the American Citizen
Anwar al-Aulaqi.
Trump administration position on combat drones CIA-ordered drone strikes were eventually ended by President Obama, who transferred control entirely to the U.S. military, under a separate legal authority. President Trump reversed this decision in 2017. A 2016 Obama executive order requiring an annual report of civilian deaths from US airstrikes outside combat zones was not complied with by the Trump administration for 2017 and was then revoked by an executive order in 2019. According to the
BBC, citing the
Bureau of Investigative Journalism, a UK-based non-profit news organisation, there were 2,243 drone strikes in the first two years of the Trump presidency, compared with 1,878 in Obama's eight years in office. According to press reports, the Trump administration has at times employed a
missile that deploys blades rather than explosives to kill targets, because it hoped to decrease non-combatant casualties. The missile is believed to have seen its first combat action in the 2017 killing of
Abu Khayr al-Masri. == Asia ==