Drone strikes: Targeted killings raise troubling questions

Their increasing range and automation are a matter of global concern

Lethal autonomous weapons systems (LAWS) are fully machine- and systems-controlled and depend on facial recognition and artificial intelligence. Such drones operate only on the basis of ex-ante data inputs about the target and are independent of human discretion in effecting a strike. In this context, there is media speculation that the first such LAWS drone attack took place in Libya in March 2020. It is ironic that the acronym for this weapons-system is LAWS since there is no international convention limiting or providing a context for the use of such weapons. Currently, there is no publicly available information about the reliability of LAWS.

The following are recent examples of the cross-border use of sophisticated drones which have not been used in an autonomous mode. The US government announced on August 1 that the Egyptian surgeon Ayman al-Zawahiri was killed by them in a drone strike in Kabul. It was reported that a Hellfire R9X missile with razor sharp blades was launched from a drone and that there were no other casualties. Referring to this particular strike the US President Joe Biden remarked that “no matter how long it takes, no matter where you hide, if you are a threat to our people, the United States will find you and take you out.” Zawahiri is infamous for his role in the August 1998 bombings of the US embassies in Kenya and Tanzania, which killed 224, and in coordinating the September 11, 2001, attacks in New York which killed about 3,000 people. There is media speculation that Pakistan provided the precise location of the safe-house in which Zawahiri was staying in Kabul in return for anticipated US leaning on multilateral agencies to help Pakistan tide over its balance of payments difficulties. 

Illustration: Binay Sinha

More than two years ago, on January 3, 2020, Qasem Soleimani an Iranian major-general was killed at Baghdad airport by a Reaper drone strike launched by the US. It was reported by Saudi-based Arab News that the drone which was used to strike Soleimani’s convoy was launched from the Al Udeid air base in Qatar and the remote-control operators were located in the Creech Air Force Base in Nevada, USA. Soleimani had arrived in Baghdad to meet with the then Iraqi prime minister, Adil Abdul-Mahdi. In addition to Soleimani, at least four other Iranian and five Iraq nationals died in this strike. The UN special rapporteur on extrajudicial killings has commented that this assassination is a likely violation of “international law”. The Iraqi government’s helpless comment was that the attack violated its national sovereignty. About a year back, on August 29, 2021, a drone strike in Kabul killed 10 Afghan civilians, including seven children with the youngest being just two years old. US General Kenneth McKenzie, the head of US Central Command then, has stated on record that this strike was a mistake. As of now, there is no information about any punitive action against those who approved this drone strike.  

In yet another cross-border assassination Mohsen Fakhrizadeh Mahabadi, a physicist affiliated with Iran’s nuclear programme, was killed on November 27, 2020, in Absard, which is located 70 kilometres to the east of Teheran. Media reports have suggested that the assassination was carried out by the Israeli government using an autonomous satellite operated gun. In 2018, the then Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu had claimed that Mahabadi was the head of a project called AMAD, allegedly meant to develop nuclear weapons. Separately, according to Indian media reports, Pakistan dropped an ammunition consignment from a drone near the Jammu border on August 18.

Apparently, it is not just the US which has developed sophisticated drones. The ability to produce drones has proliferated considerably. For example, a Turkish government promoted company called Savunma Teknolojileri Muhendislik (STM) produces a drone named Kargu-2, which can be operated manually and autonomously. In the context of producing drones, India is understood to be behind Turkey and even lagging Iran. Over time, drones could be used against Indian targets from across the border or from within and it may be impossible to take anticipatory preventive action.

Although drones have been used for decades, it is the increasing range, automation and possibly deniability of origin which should be a matter of global concern. In this context, the United Nations and forums such as the Red Cross and prominent NGOs have discussed the dangers posed by LAWS for over 10 years and have sought binding constraints on the use of LAWS. Specifically, on December 13, 2021, the United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres called for rules to regulate and limit the use of LAWS. It is unlikely that there will be any significant progress to limit the production of ever more sophisticated LAWS or restrict their use unless the world’s major military powers arrive at a consensus in this matter.

It is not as if nations have never outlawed any lethal weapons in the past. For example, the Biological and Toxin Weapons Convention (BTWC) came into force in March 1975. As of early 2022, as many as 184 countries are party to this treaty. As for the Chemical Weapons Convention (CWC), it is a multilateral agreement which came into force in April 1997 and 193 countries have signed and ratified this Convention.

By contrast, currently there is no internationally binding treaty which regulates the use of conventional drones and its deadlier variant LAWS. India is scheduled to host the next G20 Summit meeting in 2023. The precise dates and venue have not been decided as yet and it is not clear which heads of government of the five permanent members of the United Nations Security Council would attend in person. India would do the world a favour if the consensus G20 document includes a time-bound commitment to restrict/outlaw the cross-border use of drones/LAWS and constrains the development of ever more deadly unmanned bombers/fighter aircraft.

j.bhagwati@gmail.com. The writer is a former Indian ambassador, head of market risk in the World Bank Treasury and currently a distinguished fellow at the Centre for Social and Economic Progress