Cardiff-born Reyaad Khan appeared in a video urging others to join so-called Islamic State last year (Image via BBC)

Commenting on the announcement that a UK drone strike in Syria ordered without Parliamentary approval has killed two British citizens, Kat Craig, Legal Director of Reprieve’s Abuses in Counter-Terrorism team, said:

“Make no mistake – what we are seeing is the failed US model of secret strikes being copied wholesale by the British government. Ministers repeatedly promised Parliament and the public that there would be no military operations in Syria without Parliamentary approval. The fact that David Cameron has bypassed Parliament to commit these covert strikes is deeply worrying – as is his refusal to share what legal advice he was given.

“This also comes at a time when numerous American officials have said their own global drone killing policy has failed. As US strikes in Yemen and Pakistan have shown, this level of secrecy around drone killing is impractical and untenable – not least because mistakes are easily made, and can have devastating human consequences. On a decision of this importance, it’s not enough for the Prime Minister just to assert he was advised it was legal – Parliament and the public need to see that advice.”

Junaid Hussain, who referred to himself as Abu Hussain Al Britani, was described as a “top cyber jihadist” (Image via BBC)

ENDS

Links

“Reprieve website… (Drones)”

http://www.reprieve.org.uk/topic/drones/

Carol Anne Grayson is an independent writer/researcher on global health/human rights/WOT and is Executive Producer of the Oscar nominated, Incident in New Baghdad . She is a Registered Mental Nurse with a Masters in Gender Culture and Development. Carol was awarded the ESRC, Michael Young Prize for Research 2009, and the COTT ‘Action = Life’ Human Rights Award’ for “upholding truth and justice”. She is also a survivor of US “collateral damage”.