A Bureau of Investigative Journalism report published Thursday “appears to confirm” that the Central Intelligence Agency targeted rescuers at sites of previous drone strikes in the tribal areas of Pakistan last year. The field investigation focused primarily on one village in North Waziristan, where attacks were aimed at senior al-Qaida figure Yahya al-Libi. He was eventually killed in June 2012 by a CIA drone strike.

The Bureau of Investigative Journalism:

The Bureau first broke the story of the CIA’s deliberate targeting of rescuers in a February 2012 investigation for the Sunday Times. It found evidence of 11 attacks on rescuers – so-called ‘double-tap’ strikes – in Pakistan’s tribal areas between 2009 and 2011, along with a drone strike deliberately targeting a funeral, causing mass casualties.

Reports of these controversial tactics ended by July 2011. But credible news reports emerged a year later indicating that double-tap strikes had been revived.

…The Bureau commissioned a report into the alleged attacks from Mushtaq Yusufzai, a respected journalist based in Peshawar, who reports regularly for NBC and for local paper The News.

…His findings indicate that five double-tap strikes did indeed take place again in mid-2012, one of which also struck a mosque. In total 53 people were killed in these attacks with 57 injured, the report suggests.

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