Targeted Killing

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As a targeted killing ( Engl. Targeted killing ) is the carried out by a State or an organization killing as a person, unlawful combatant is considered or general threat to the security of its own population. The tactic is often associated with asymmetrical warfare and is used in particular against people who are in countries where the use of conventional armed forces is not possible and in which the authorities there are unable to enforce criminal or international prosecution of the person concerned want. In addition to secret service operations , this can also be a commando operation by a police or military special unit . The killings can take place both in their own country and on foreign territory.

Since the end of the 2000s, the USA has been increasingly using remote-controlled unmanned aerial vehicles (drones) to kill selected people in other countries with air-to-surface missiles , which also kills bystanders (see collateral damage ). The number of people killed is in the thousands.

The procedure is legally and ethically controversial, but is generally tolerated by Western states and their allies. Critics often describe the procedure as fundamentally illegal and state-sanctioned murder , and accordingly the term euphemism or euphemism . In the recent past, this practice has led to considerable political tensions, for example between the USA and Pakistan as well as Israel and several European countries. Since the 2010s, the US has attracted considerable criticism from various quarters , particularly by stepping up drone attacks in Pakistan on terror suspects. According to independent studies, several hundred bystanders have already died in Pakistan alone. Some American lawyers also described the practice in official hearings as a “clear breach of international law ”.

International distribution of the application

Since the 1950s, Israel has used the tactic of targeted killings in the fight against people classified as enemies. Even then, officers of the Egyptian armed forces, who coordinated the operations of Arab guerrilla forces, were killed by letter bombs. In the 1970s , after being taken hostage at the 1972 Olympic Games , the terrorist organization “ Black September ” was crushed by targeted killings, with an innocent by mistake being killed by Israeli agents due to a mix-up ( Lillehammer affair ). In the subsequent killing of Ali Hassan Salameh , at least two other bystanders were also killed.

The South African apartheid regime carried out several attacks on political opponents by means of paramilitary units, best known the Vlakplaas police group and the Civil Cooperation Bureau , some of which resulted in death. Prominent examples are the actions against Griffiths Mxenge , Anton Lubowski , Ruth First and the family of Marius Schoon. It did not matter whether the target persons were in other countries at the time of the attack. In other cases, such as Albie Sachs and Joe Slovo , the attacks failed. Most of these attacks occurred in the 1980s.

Discussion in Germany

In Germany , targeted killings were repeatedly discussed from 2001 onwards. The Federal Minister of the Interior at the time, Otto Schily, brought the topic into the discussion with the words “whoever loves death can have it” . The then Interior Minister Wolfgang Schäuble spoke out in July 2007 for the use of the tactic. In 2005, soldiers from the Bundeswehr Special Forces Command told the German media that they had been ordered to kill local leaders of criminal organizations in Afghanistan . The results of aerial reconnaissance from Bundeswehr tornadoes over southern Afghanistan are used by NATO on site to carry out targeted killings , which the US President Bush ordered after September 11, 2001 as part of a general permit for targeted killings worldwide. In the debate about the procurement of armed drones in 2012, the former Federal Minister of Defense Thomas de Maizière took the view that Germany would never take part in “extrajudicial killings”.

terminology

The naming of the matter is controversial and depends on the respective political assessment. Actions directed against the West always referred to them as " murder " or "unlawful killing". German terrorists called their killings of symbolic figures of society " executions ". German politicians rate the current “targeted killings” in Israel either as an “execution” ( Johannes Gerster , CDU ) or as a “targeted murder” ( Daniel Cohn-Bendit , B'90 / Greens ).

Most critics accuse the term of obfuscation and glossing over, so consider it a euphemism . The German federal government, like a large number of other Western governments, has adopted the term “killings” or “targeted killings”.

Through the use of a linguistic construct ( tautology ), one aspect of such actions (“goal-directedness”) is particularly emphasized and the opposite aspect of accepting innocent fellow victims (see “ collateral damage ”) is pushed into the background.

Historical examples

There are numerous examples in history of the principle of targeted killing. In 1940 the Soviet GPU carried out a fatal attack on Leon Trotsky in exile in Mexico because of his agitation against Stalinism . At the time of the Vietnam War, there was Operation Phoenix 1968-1969 , which has a counterpart in Task Force 373 today . Further examples are the so-called umbrella attack carried out by the Bulgarian secret service in London in 1978 , the attempted killing of the Libyan head of state Muammar al-Gaddafi by the USA in 1986 and, in order to avoid a protracted and costly war, the attempted killing of the then Iraqi one Ruler Saddam Hussein on March 20, 2003, also by the USA.

US drone strikes

542 drone operations against suspected terrorists are known under US President Barack Obama ; 3797 people were killed, including 324 civilians. Following a FOIA inquiry in 2013, the Joint Staff released the updated version of their target selection criteria.

US drone strikes in Pakistan

Since around 2004 the US started launching drone strikes on terror suspects it identified in certain areas of Pakistan . In August 2011, the Bureau of Investigative Journalism (BIJ) submitted a report on the attacks, for which around 2,000 media reports were evaluated. According to this, at least 291 missions have been carried out since 2004 in which between 2292 and 2863 people died. According to the investigation, at least 1104 were injured. 126 armed Islamist leaders known by name and several hundred Islamist militants were killed. Around 385 to 775 bystanders, including 164 children, were killed in the attacks. The American authorities, on the other hand, name 2050 fatalities, of which 2000 are said to have been Islamist militants. Among the Islamists killed by drone attacks in Pakistan is the German citizen Bünyamin Erdoğan , who died on October 4, 2010 in the Pakistani region of Wasiristan .

Since Barack Obama took office , the CIA has expanded its attacks. An operation was carried out approximately every four days. According to the BIJ report, a total of 236 attacks with at least 1,842 dead were carried out between then and August 2011. The Pakistani government tolerates the attacks on its territory, but repeatedly protests formally. The majority of the population strongly opposed the attacks. For example, on April 12, 2012, the Pakistani parliament called for the attacks to stop.

The case of Anwar al-Awlaki

In April 2010 it became known that the Islamist extremist Anwar al-Awlaki was the first US citizen since 2001 to be placed on a CIA list of the most wanted extremists for arrest or killing.

Nasser al-Awlaki, Anwar's father, tried with a team of Yemeni and US lawyers to get a federal court in the US to ban the targeted killing of his son because it was illegal and contrary to the United States Constitution.

At the end of September 2011, according to a report by the US military, Anwar al-Awlaki was finally killed together with the US citizen Samir Khan and two other people in a drone attack in Yemen. According to the Washington Post, the attack was authorized by the United States Department of Justice.

Two weeks later, on October 14, 2011, al-Awlaki's 16-year-old son Abdulrahman, who was also a US citizen, was killed in the same way in Yemen. Eight other people died. The US never associated him with al Qaeda activities.

criticism

The practice of this drone war is in some cases massively criticized both internationally and by critics within the USA . For example, it is highly controversial whether these are covered by international law . At a hearing before a committee of the US House of Representatives in April 2010, the lawyer and international law expert Mary Ellen O'Connell described the drone attacks as a “clear violation of international law”. Because of the lack of a legal basis, the CIA staff responsible for the drone attacks could be arrested in other countries and charged with murder.

Development in Israel since 2001

Positions of Israeli Politics

Israel, which has applied this strategy to leaders of Hamas and other groups since the outbreak of the Second Intifada in 2000 , refers to aspects of self-defense. The Palestinian Authority is accused of not acting against terrorists or even supporting them. The real goal is still legal prosecution and, in the event of unenforceability, averting danger.

Israeli response to the death of bystanders

In attempts or targeted killings, uninvolved civilians are repeatedly killed, which contradicts the requirement that the Israeli armed forces be clean of weapons . The best- known example is the targeted killing of Salah Schehade with a one-ton bomb, in which another 14 people, mostly children, were killed, although several Air Force generals knew of several children and civilians near Schehade. The then Prime Minister of Israel, Ariel Sharon , described the mission as a great success, however, as Schehade was hit.

As a result of the initially relatively high number of bystanders killed, the Israeli armed forces changed their approach. Fighter-bombers and conventional bombs were only rarely used for the implementation, which is increasingly being executed by helicopters and specially developed low-explosive missiles. As a result, fewer bystanders were killed. At the same time, however, there were situations in which planned killings could not be carried out. In September 2003, the killing of a large part of the Hamas leadership failed because the under- dimensioned high-explosive bomb destroyed only part of the building in which they were staying.

Discussion about political consequences

It is controversial within Israeli politics what consequences the strategy of targeted killings harbors.

Proponents of the tactic point out that after the killing of key leaders in 2003 and 2004, Hamas completely stopped suicide bombings. The number of suicide bombings carried out by Palestinians fell by more than 90% between 2002 and 2006, in parallel with targeted killings. However, it is unclear what role other factors, such as the construction of the barrier, play in this development. It is believed that targeted killings have some deterrent effect.

Critics point to the increasing radicalization of Palestinian society and a weakening of the forces willing to compromise. Official studies prepared by the Israeli army suggest that Hamas' influence will be suppressed in the medium term. On January 25, 2005, the Sharon government announced that it would temporarily refrain from targeted killings in order to support the peace process that would emerge after the election of Mahmoud Abbas .

people

The targeted killing policy affects the following people:

  • In the 1980s, the French government tried to kill the left-wing terrorist " Carlos " and the Arab terrorist Abu Nidal .
  • British security forces killed members of the IRA in Operation Flavius .
  • The United States has killed several al-Qaeda leaders in Yemen and Pakistan since 2002 .
  • On August 27, 2001 the PFLP leader Abu Ali Mustafa through Israel.
  • On July 23, 2002, the founder of the Hamas armed group , Salah Shehada, was deliberately killed in an Israeli air strike. He was the planner of many attacks against Israeli civilians.
  • On August 21, 2003, Ismail Abu Shanab , a Hamas leader with two bodyguards, was deliberately killed in a helicopter attack in Gaza City.
  • The highest-ranking person who died in a targeted killing was the founder and spiritual leader of the terrorist organization Hamas Ahmad Yasin , who was attacked by the Israeli army on March 22, 2004 along with at least seven other people by three Hellfire missiles from a helicopter gunship was killed.
  • On April 17, 2004, Ahmad Yasin's successor, Abd al-Aziz ar-Rantisi, was killed. His vehicle was hit by at least two missiles in an attack by an Israeli army helicopter.
  • On November 12, 2019, Baha Abu al-Ata, the leader of the Islamic jihad, and his wife were deliberately killed. After violent Palestinian rocket fire, the Israeli Air Force bombs the Gaza Strip, killing 34 Palestinians.
  • On January 3, 2020, the Iranian officer Qasem Soleimani was deliberately killed using a drone. This was the first time the U.S. Forces used drones to kill a senior foreign officer on foreign soil.

Positions of the international community

Internationally, the majority of states reject these measures; they are hardly compatible with the idea of ​​the rule of law , since the victim lacks any possibility of defense against the substantive allegations. The former UN Secretary General Kofi Annan also took a clear position. On the occasion of the "liquidation" of Abd al-Aziz al-Rantisi on April 17, 2004, he condemned Israel's killing of the Hamas leader. The act violates international law. He called on Israel to stop the targeted killings immediately. Arab states in particular refer to the targeted killings of Israel as a form of state terrorism and compare them to the attacks by Palestinian terrorists on Israeli civilians and soldiers.

However, the targeted killing of the Jordanian terrorist Abu Musab az-Zarqawi by the US Army in Iraq in June 2006 was largely welcomed in the international media.

International law considerations

Opponents of the policy of targeted killing refer to the regulations of the Fourth Geneva Convention of 1949, according to which it is forbidden to target unarmed civilians militarily. However, it is controversial whether leaders of armed groups fall under the definition of unarmed civilians. On the other hand, the presumption of innocence applies in every constitutional state and information about alleged "leaders" must also be checked before an execution in order to deny them the status of unarmed civilians.

The international covenant on civil and political rights of 1966, which was also ratified by Israel and which prohibits executions without a final judgment, is also cited. Here, too, there are arguments that, by analogy with the likewise unprincipled final rescue shot, ascribe a state the right to kill members of groups generally recognized as terrorist when carrying out an act of terror under certain circumstances. In addition, killings in the course of military conflicts are probably not executions within the meaning of this treaty. Whether this treaty applies here depends on whether the killing is assessed as an execution or as a military action against an enemy leader. In this regard, however, it is very interesting who makes the definition or who can legitimize z. B. checked by a secret service or the military.

According to the United Nations report of September 18, 2013, in Pakistan alone at least 2,200 people have been killed by drones since 2004 - including at least 400 civilians. The same source reports more than 52 civilians killed in Yemen since 2009. Other countries in which unmanned missiles are used are Afghanistan, Libya, Iraq, Somalia and Gaza.

The civilian casualty figures have so far been estimated to be significantly lower. However one evaluates remote-controlled attacks in terms of legitimacy - the current figures give the critics new arguments to reassess these operations from now on in terms of international law.

See also

literature

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ tagesschau.de: USA: Targeted killings are the program. Retrieved February 29, 2020 .
  2. ↑ New king of drones: Trump outstrips Barack Obama in air strikes. Retrieved February 29, 2020 .
  3. ↑ How Barack Obama is wrong about his drone war. In: NachDenkSeiten - The Critical Website. Retrieved on February 29, 2020 (German).
  4. ↑ Drone Strikes: Obama's Undeclared War . In: The time . December 1, 2014, ISSN  0044-2070 ( zeit.de [accessed February 29, 2020]).
  5. ↑ a b USA: Illegal drone war? In: Der Spiegel . No. 13 , 2010, p. 89 ( online ).
  6. ↑ a b War at the click of a mouse: international lawyers castigate US drone attacks . Spiegel Online . April 29, 2010. Archived from the original on April 25, 2011. Retrieved on April 25, 2011.
  7. ↑ Dan Raviv , Yossi Melman : Every Spy a Prince. The Complete History of Israel's Intelligence Community. Houghton Mifflin, Boston 1990, ISBN 0-395-47102-8 , p. 122.
  8. ↑ Page no longer available , search in web archives: The Truth and Reconciliation Commission Amnesty Decision. on www.info.gov.za (English)@1@ 2Template: Dead Link / www.info.gov.za
  9. ^ The Truth and Reconciliation Commission, Amnesty Committee, AC / 2000/083 (English)
  10. ^ Cross border raids. (No longer available online.) In: www.sahistory.org.za. Archived from the original on February 21, 2013 ; accessed on April 23, 2018 (English).
  11. ↑ Holger Stark, Georg Mascolo, Ralf Neukirch: Whoever loves death can have it . In: Der Spiegel . No. 18 , 2004 ( online - April 26, 2004 ).
  12. ↑ Stefan Aust , Marcel Rosenbach , Holger Stark : It can hit us at any time . In: Der Spiegel . No. 28 , 2007, pp. 31-33 ( online - 9 July 2007 ).
  13. ↑ Cf. Marcel Bohnert : Guardian from the air. Drones as patrons of German ground troops in Afghanistan In: Uwe Hartmann and Claus von Rosen (eds.): Yearbook Inner Guidance 2014. Drones, robots and cyborgs. The soldier in the face of new military technologies , Carola Hartmann Miles-Verlag , Berlin 2014, p. 22f.
  14. ^ Contribution to the Magdeburger Volksstimme, April 8, 2004 (on the killing of Yasin).
  15. ↑ Interview DLF, Deutschlandradio, April 19, 7:15 a.m.
  16. ↑ tagesschau.de: USA: Targeted killings are the program. Accessed January 21, 2020 .
  17. ^ The Pentagon won't say why its targeting manual was released online. Retrieved February 29, 2020 .
  18. ↑ ZEIT ONLINE: Secret Service Report: USA killed more than 100 civilians with drone attacks . In: The time . July 1, 2016, ISSN  0044-2070 ( zeit.de [accessed February 29, 2020]).
  19. ↑ a b c US drones are said to have killed hundreds of civilians. In: Süddeutsche Zeitung . August 12, 2011, accessed August 12, 2011 .
  20. ↑ a b c d Sven Hansen: Neither clean nor precise. In: the daily newspaper . August 12, 2011, accessed August 12, 2011 .
  21. ↑ Peter Strutynski (ed.): Contested drones. In: Peter Strutynski. Remote kill. Combat drones in the global shadow war. Vienna: Promedia. P. 9. ISBN 978-3-85371-366-2
  22. ↑ Parliament wants to loosen the ISAF's supply blockade
  23. ↑ Obama releases terror suspected US citizens to be killed. In: Spiegel Online , April 7, 2010.
  24. ↑ Jo Becker, Scott Shane: Secret 'Kill List' Proves a Test of Obama's Principles and Will . On May 29, 2012 at: nytimes.com
  25. ↑ Yassin Musharbash: US court should prevent targeted killing of al-Qaida cadres. In: Spiegel Online , August 27, 2010.
  26. ↑ Christina Hebel: Yemen reports death of hate preacher Awlaki. In: Spiegel Online , September 30, 2011.
  27. ↑ American Justice Department authorized killing of Aulaqi. In: Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung . October 1, 2011, accessed October 3, 2011 .
  28. ^ Peter Finn, Greg Miller: Anwar al-Awlaki's family speaks out against his, son's deaths . On October 17, 2011 at washingtonpost.com
  29. ↑ Rym Momtaz, Matthew Cole: Awlaki Family Protests US Killing of Anwar Awlaki's Teen Son . On October 19, 2011 at: abcnews.go.com
  30. ^ Craig Whitlock: US airstrike that killed American teen in Yemen raises legal, ethical questions . On October 22, 2011 at washingtonpost.com
  31. ↑ The price of becoming addicted to drones - Washington Post, September 22, 2011
  32. ↑ Critical fighter pilots are dismissed. ( Memento from September 20, 2005 in the Internet Archive ) In: Süddeutsche Zeitung . September 26, 2003.
  33. ↑ This morning Salah Shihada's death was confirmed. In: HaGalil . July 23, 2002.
  34. ↑ Laura Blumenfeld: In Israel, a Divisive Struggle Over Targeted Killing. In: Washington Post. August 27, 2006.
  35. ↑ Al Qaeda Figure Reported Killed. In: Washington Post. May 14, 2005.
  36. ↑ Kölner Stadt-Anzeiger from June 24, 2002, page 1
  37. ↑ David Hirst: Sheikh Ahmed Yassin. As spiritual leader of the terror group Hamas, he rose to challenge Yasser Arafat as the figure head of Palestinian resistance to Israel. March 23, 2004, accessed March 29, 2020 .
  38. ^ Hamas chief killed in air strike. Sheikh Ahmed Yassin, spiritual head of Palestinian militant group Hamas, has been killed in an Israeli air strike. March 22, 2020, accessed February 29, 2020 .
  39. ↑ Kölner Stadt-Anzeiger from April 19, 2004, page 1
  40. ↑ spiegel.de: Abu al-Ata purposefully killed in the Gaza Strip
  41. ↑ spiegel.de: Israel's air force bombs positions of militant Palestinians
  42. ↑ Helen Warrell: From Desert Storm to Soleimani: How US drone warfare has evolved. In: Financial Times. January 9, 2020, accessed on January 11, 2020 .