WE are told that the drone is a precision weapon, which kills terrorists with the minimum risk to civilians. This is not true.

Recent research shows that drone strikes have killed between 474 and 881 Pakistani civilians, including 176 children, since 2004.

The true figure may be much higher.

Only two per cent of those killed are “high level” terrorist leaders. Many more are victims of so-called “signature strikes”

– individuals whose identities are not known, but whose behaviour is regarded as suspicious. Furthermore, all military-aged males within the strike area are deemed to be “combatants,” and many have been killed by “double tap”

strikes – follow-up strikes against those who have rushed to help those wounded by the first.

This is not warfare. It is summary execution. Those sentenced to death get no fair trial, and no opportunity to explain their supposedly “suspicious” behaviour.

The effect on the civilian population is devastating, disrupting everyday activities and causing widespread anxiety and psychological trauma.

The drones can be heard buzzing overhead 24 hours a day, and no one knows if they, or their children, will become the next bug splat – the term used by the drone operators, safely behind their computer screens in Nevada.

Pete Winstanley, Durham.