RT.com<\/p>\n
India is scrambling to keep its skies safe after the US breached the sovereignty of its \u201cfriend\u201d Iraq by carrying out an illegal drone attack which killed, among others, Iran\u2019s top military commander, General Qassem Soleimani.<\/p>\n
New Delhi already has a regulatory policy in place for unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) and their remote pilots who require prior permission to be in Indian skies but it\u2019s no safeguard if a foe (Pakistan, for example) or a perceived friend (the United States) comes hissing from above and starts raining mayhem.<\/p>\n
India had begun to put its drone policy in place after Pakistan was caught dropping a cache of arms in Punjab last September, but it\u2019s the United States, with its brazen disregard for international norms, as well as its murderous drone background, which has had a chilling effect on India\u2019s strategic boardrooms.<\/p>\n
US and its sordid drone history<\/span><\/p>\n In September last year, a US drone strike in Afghanistan snuffed out the lives of 30 civilian farm workers, and estimates of similar innocent deaths hover around 1,000-2,000. The exact count is difficult to verify since the United States no longer releases the annual reports on the civilians its airstrikes kill. The allocation of drones in its annual budget though had spiralled to nearly $7 billion in 2018 and conveys the increasing importance of this unmanned weapon in the United States\u2019 aggressive military designs.<\/p>\n General Soleimani\u2019s was a cold-blooded assassination, but the United States makes no distinction between its enemies and friends, or civilians, as its drone attacks in seven countries \u2013 Syria, Iraq, Somalia, Libya, Afghanistan, Pakistan and Yemen \u2013 bear the imprint of its rogue strike. It has a cooperative security relationship in place with Iraq, yet it\u00a0conducted what was described as an\u00a0\u201coutrageous breach of Iraqi sovereignty\u201d<\/em>\u00a0by Iraqi Prime Minister Adel Abdul Mahdi in the wake of General Soleimani\u2019s killing.<\/p>\n 'The use of drones or other means for targeted killing is almost never likely to be legal' – UN Rapporteur on killing of #Solaimani<\/a>https:\/\/t.co\/l0vIrGJnEs<\/a><\/p>\n — RT (@RT_com) January 3, 2020<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n\n