US drone attacks are 'war crimes', rights groups claim

Two Yemeni men show pictures of their son and brother, both killed in drone strikes. Credit: Letta Tayler/Human Rights Watch

The CIA's controversial method of attacking suspected terrorists with drones has come under fire today. Two reports, from Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch, said such attacks could be classed as war crimes.

Watch the report from our Washington Correspondent Robert Moore:

The reports cited strikes in Yemen and Pakistan which killed innocent civillians, while Pakistan's Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif called for the strikes to end.

Amnesty International reviewed 45 known drone strikes that took place in North Waziristan in northwest Pakistan between January 2012 and August 2013. They found evidence that a number of civilians, including an elderly woman, and a group of young labourers, were killed in attacks.

Human Rights Watch said their evaluations of six US drone strikes in Yemen found that two of the attacks killed civilians indiscriminately "in clear violations of the laws of war". The others may have targeted people who were not legitimate targets, or caused disproportionate civilian deaths, the organisation said.