US drone death toll 4700

A US senator has said an estimated 4,700 people, including some civilians, have been killed in the contentious bombing raids of America's secretive drone war.

It was the first time a politician or any government representative had referred to a total number of fatalities in the drone strikes, which have been condemned by rights groups as extrajudicial assassinations.

The toll from hundreds of drone-launched missile strikes against suspected Al-Qaeda militants in Pakistan, Yemen and elsewhere has remained a mystery, as US officials refuse to publicly discuss any details of the covert campaign.

But Republican Senator Lindsey Graham, a staunch supporter of the drone raids, openly cited a number that exceeds some independent estimates of the death toll.

"We've killed 4,700," Mr Graham was quoted as saying by the Easley Patch, a local website covering the small town of Easley in South Carolina.

"Sometimes you hit innocent people, and I hate that, but we're at war, and we've taken out some very senior members of Al-Qaeda," Mr Graham told the Easley Rotary Club.

source @ http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/northamerica/usa/9884667/US-senator-says-drones-death-toll-is-4700.html