PREVENTION AND CONFLICT

Living Under Drones Death, Injury, and Trauma to Civilians From US Drone Practices in Pakistan

This report traces the human and strategic costs of United States drone strike policies in Pakistan through the lens of civilian testimony and human rights documentation, situating it in the broader framework of international accountability and evaluating the profound gap between the official narrative of surgical precision and the devastating reality experienced by communities living under sustained aerial surveillance and bombardment. This report argues that the systematic use of targeted killing as a counter-terrorism instrument carries deeply counterproductive significance through the compounding dynamics of civilian harm, institutional secrecy, and eroded public trust, generating consequences that undermine both the human rights of Pakistani civilians and the long-term security interests of the U.S. in ways that demand urgent and transparent policy re-evaluation.

In the United States (U.S.), the dominant narrative about the use of drones in Pakistan is of a surgically precise and effective tool that makes the US safer by enabling “targeted killing” of terrorists, with minimal downsides or collateral impacts.

This narrative is false. Following nine months of intensive research—including two investigations in Pakistan, more than 130 interviews with victims, witnesses, and experts, and review of thousands of pages of documentation and media reporting—this report presents evidence of the damaging and counterproductive effects of current US drone strike policies. Based on extensive interviews with Pakistanis living in the regions directly affected, as well as humanitarian and medical workers, this report provides new and firsthand testimony about the negative impacts US policies are having on the civilians living under drones.