On the night of 5 August 2009, a US Predator 'drone' hovering high over Zanghara, a remote village in Pakistan's South Waziristan, sighted its prey, the Pakistani warlord Baitullah Mehsud, the head of the Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP). According to Pakistan's intelligence agencies, Baitullah was the man behind the assassination of Benazir Bhutto (an allegation that he had denied) as well as scores of deadly attacks on Pakistan's security forces. The drone's video footage showed Baitullah, who suffered from several ailments, on the roof of a house, lying on his back receiving an intravenous transfusion; his wife and father-in-law were also clearly visible, and all appeared to be completely oblivious to the drone's presence.
Within moments of making a positive identification, the drone's controllers, sitting somewhere in the United States, pressed a button, unleashing the drone's deadly cargo: air-to-ground missiles that hit the target with pinpoint accuracy. Baitullah Mehsud was instantly incinerated along with his wife, father-in-law, mother-in-law, seven bodyguards and an aide. In all, the attack resulted in 11 deaths other than that of the target – what the public is then asked to identity as collateral damage. At least three of those killed were non-combatants by any definition. Usually in such situations, the toll is even higher – a study by the Brookings Institute in 2009 had suggested that that roughly ten civilian deaths result from each 'target' killed in a drone attack. Further, this was not the first attack on Baitullah Mehsud – there had been some 15 prior attempts to eliminate him, resulting in an unknown number of casualties.
Since the first use of drone technology by the US in Pakistani territory, in June 2004, the frequency of these attacks has steadily increased. There was a marked increase in 2008 and again in 2010. To date this year there have been more than 70 drone attacks in Pakistan, killing more than 600 people. Most of the targets have been al-Qaeda fighters, mostly Arabs and other foreign militants. Nearly all of the 'collateral damage', of course, has been civilian citizens of Pakistan.
Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs) – powered, lightweight, unmanned, remotely controlled (usually from the ground) aircraft popularly called drones – have been around for decades. The technology was developed during the Second World War; and with advances in electronic and computer technologies, the drone has found increasing military use, first for target practice and later reconnaissance. For the latter, the US successfully deployed drone technology during the Vietnam conflict and later the wars in Iraq and the Balkans. For all practical purposes, the present-day drone is a robot used for missions considered too dangerous or otherwise unsuited for humans. The drones deployed by the US forces today can stay in the air for up to 24 hours, and can be controlled from anywhere in the world; they can also be made to operate for extended periods on their own.