Ces victimes afghanes dont on ne parle jamais
The US government data does not distinguish between classic aerial attacks and drone strikes. For that reason, it isn't clear how many drone strikes really took place inAfghanistan.But with three different sources required to confirm a single casualty, the families of many of those killed say their relatives have not even made it into that count.
"You will not find my cousin and other victims like him in these reports," says Sadiq's cousin, Farhad.
Critics of the UN report say that without journalists or human rights activists present in the country's most war-torn areas, killings often go unreported and unsubstantiated, never making it into formal records."Most war-torn areas of Afghanistan, especially where drone strikes take place regularly, are not visited by journalists or activists. They are considered as too dangerous, as dead zones," says Waheed Mozhdah, a political analyst based in Kabul.
Besides, records of civilian casualties only begin from 2009, eight years after the war started.In fact, the very first recorded incident of a strike by a weaponised drone took place on October 7, 2001, when US forces targeted the late Taliban leader Mullah Mohammad Omar in Kandahar.
Omar was not killed on that day - but many ordinary civilians, just like Sadiq, have been in the years since.