Washington // The United States on Friday lifted the lid on one of the most controversial tactics of President Barack Obama’s secretive counterterror campaign, detailing for the first time the number killed in air strikes in countries like Pakistan and Libya.
At the same time, the White House released an executive order outlining the steps that should be taken to reduce civilian casualties in America’s ongoing battle against violent extremism.
In a much-anticipated report, the Director of National Intelligence provided fatality estimates for the 473 strikes between 2009 and 2015 that he said were conducted outside America’s principal war zones in Iraq, Syria and Afghanistan.
The DNI said somewhere between 64 and 116 civilians were killed in the strikes, and up to 2,581 combatants.
Such attacks are typically conducted via drones, though manned warplanes and missiles have also been used.
Though the US military routinely releases information on strikes targeting ISIL and other organisations, mainly in Iraq and Syria, it is the first time the Obama administration has published a toll from its strikes elsewhere, in countries like Libya, Somalia and Pakistan.
The release comes after rights groups and the media for years demanded a better accounting of such military actions under Mr Obama, and many questioned the legality of the strikes.
Critics have long alleged that US strikes — especially drone strikes — kill far more civilians than the administration claims, and Friday’s release did not appear to change that narrative.
Observers also say that without better transparency, it is impossible to gauge the accuracy of US fatality assessments.
The American Civil Liberties Union welcomed the release of information but said it was too narrow in scope and left the US public unsure the government deploys lethal force legally.
“It’s hard to credit the government’s death count, which is lower than all independent assessments,” said Hina Shamsi, director of the ACLU’s National Security Project.
“The government continues to conceal the identities of people it has killed, the specific definitions it uses to decide who can legitimately be targeted, and its investigations into credibly alleged wrongful killings.”
Even the DNI seemed to acknowledge the possible weakness of its own numbers.
“Although the US government has access to a wide range of information, the figures released today should be considered in light of the inherent limitations on the ability to determine the precise number of combatant and non-combatant deaths given the non-permissive environments in which these strikes often occur,” the DNI said in a statement.
Often, neither the military nor US intelligence agencies are able to send an operative to the scene of a drone strike, making it all but impossible to definitively assess how many people were hit.
Laura Pitter, senior US national security counsel at Human Rights Watch, said Mr Obama had failed to explain who the campaign targets and why, so there is no way to verify purported casualty figures.
“Unless details are provided on specific incidents, it’s not possible to determine if individuals killed were civilians, and thus whether the US is complying with its own policy and with international law,” she said.
The White House meanwhile released an executive order that sets out best practices that can be applied to future strikes, regardless of where they are conducted.
“Civilian casualties are a tragic and at times unavoidable consequence of the use of force in situations of armed conflict,” Mr Obama’s order states.
Among its provisions are requirements for the US government to acknowledge responsibility for civilian casualties and to offer condolences and payments to injured civilians and the relatives of those killed.
The order also undertakes to consider information from other sources, such as non-governmental organisations, in determining civilian casualties.
*Agence France-Presse
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Volunteers offer workers a lifeline
Community volunteers have swung into action delivering food packages and toiletries to the men.
When provisions are distributed, the men line up in long queues for packets of rice, flour, sugar, salt, pulses, milk, biscuits, shaving kits, soap and telecom cards.
Volunteers from St Mary’s Catholic Church said some workers came to the church to pray for their families and ask for assistance.
Boxes packed with essential food items were distributed to workers in the Dubai Investments Park and Ras Al Khaimah camps last week. Workers at the Sonapur camp asked for Dh1,600 towards their gas bill.
“Especially in this year of tolerance we consider ourselves privileged to be able to lend a helping hand to our needy brothers in the Actco camp," Father Lennie Connully, parish priest of St Mary’s.
Workers spoke of their helplessness, seeing children’s marriages cancelled because of lack of money going home. Others told of their misery of being unable to return home when a parent died.
“More than daily food, they are worried about not sending money home for their family,” said Kusum Dutta, a volunteer who works with the Indian consulate.
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Mercer, the investment consulting arm of US services company Marsh & McLennan, expects its wealth division to at least double its assets under management (AUM) in the Middle East as wealth in the region continues to grow despite economic headwinds, a company official said.
Mercer Wealth, which globally has $160 billion in AUM, plans to boost its AUM in the region to $2-$3bn in the next 2-3 years from the present $1bn, said Yasir AbuShaban, a Dubai-based principal with Mercer Wealth.
“Within the next two to three years, we are looking at reaching $2 to $3 billion as a conservative estimate and we do see an opportunity to do so,” said Mr AbuShaban.
Mercer does not directly make investments, but allocates clients’ money they have discretion to, to professional asset managers. They also provide advice to clients.
“We have buying power. We can negotiate on their (client’s) behalf with asset managers to provide them lower fees than they otherwise would have to get on their own,” he added.
Mercer Wealth’s clients include sovereign wealth funds, family offices, and insurance companies among others.
From its office in Dubai, Mercer also looks after Africa, India and Turkey, where they also see opportunity for growth.
Wealth creation in Middle East and Africa (MEA) grew 8.5 per cent to $8.1 trillion last year from $7.5tn in 2015, higher than last year’s global average of 6 per cent and the second-highest growth in a region after Asia-Pacific which grew 9.9 per cent, according to consultancy Boston Consulting Group (BCG). In the region, where wealth grew just 1.9 per cent in 2015 compared with 2014, a pickup in oil prices has helped in wealth generation.
BCG is forecasting MEA wealth will rise to $12tn by 2021, growing at an annual average of 8 per cent.
Drivers of wealth generation in the region will be split evenly between new wealth creation and growth of performance of existing assets, according to BCG.
Another general trend in the region is clients’ looking for a comprehensive approach to investing, according to Mr AbuShaban.
“Institutional investors or some of the families are seeing a slowdown in the available capital they have to invest and in that sense they are looking at optimizing the way they manage their portfolios and making sure they are not investing haphazardly and different parts of their investment are working together,” said Mr AbuShaban.
Some clients also have a higher appetite for risk, given the low interest-rate environment that does not provide enough yield for some institutional investors. These clients are keen to invest in illiquid assets, such as private equity and infrastructure.
“What we have seen is a desire for higher returns in what has been a low-return environment specifically in various fixed income or bonds,” he said.
“In this environment, we have seen a de facto increase in the risk that clients are taking in things like illiquid investments, private equity investments, infrastructure and private debt, those kind of investments were higher illiquidity results in incrementally higher returns.”
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