WASHINGTON (Sputnik) — The experts’ comments come after the online media outlet The Intercept published a batch of secret documents dubbed "The Drone Papers," leaked by an anonymous whistleblower. The documents show the evolution of US military drone use and abuses between 2011 and 2013.
Judith Bello of Drones Watch told Sputnik on Friday that the number of drone technology violations has risen for the last several years since first reports of drone abuses emerged.
"Since then, the abuses have become more widespread and less reported. There has been an exponential increase in 'fun', 'cool' uses for drones," Bello explained.
Within the United States, Bello claimed, more military forces "than ever are prosecuting drone attacks and they have an ever expanding list of target countries and bases to work from."
According to data from the leaked documents, about nine out of ten people who have died in US airstrikes in Afghanistan were not direct targets of the US military.
The leaked documents also reveal that a US secretive unit carried out drone and manned flights in Somalia and Yemen in 2011 and 2012 from the territories of Djibouti, Kenya and Ethiopia.
They show that the United States extended its presence on the African continent after the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks on the country.
Moreover, US coordination of drone strikes with Somalian and Yemeni authorities in 2011 and 2012 was irregular, with alerts coming at different times of operations.
"The bottom line is that these governments are aware that they have no power to stop the United States, and they respond with a kind of self-serving ambivalence," Bello stated. "What strikes me most is that anyone is surprised and that this is a scoop."
KnowDrones.com coordinator Nick Mottern told Sputnik that "The Drone Papers" are "extremely important in documenting more completely what we [activists] have known about the atrocities of drone war."
Mottern explained they provide new documentation of war crimes and the larger US assassination program of which the drones are a part.
"I believe the report is gives only a glimpse though of this monstrous, illegal and failed program," Mottern said.
The activist also urged the UN to launch an investigation into The Intercept report’s findings.
"The UN needs to begin an investigation based on the report leading to sanctions. Again, the US Congress needs to hold hearings immediately, toward a determination with respect to war crimes," Mottern added.
The drone programs under the Pentagon’s Joint Special Operations Command and the Central Intelligence Agency have remained classified up until the release of The Intercept reports.
The US military has increasingly relied on drones to conduct operations in Afghanistan, Pakistan, Libya, Syria and Iraq. Critics have slammed the practice for killing a significant number of civilians and destroying infrastructure unrelated to terrorists.
Data collected by the Bureau of Investigative Journalism shows that US drone strikes have killed up to 1,000 civilians in Afghanistan, Pakistan, Somalia and Yemen over the past ten years.
