UN investigator decries killer drones

A United Nations investigator is demanding that the Obama administration justify its policy of assassinating instead of capturing al Qaeda or Taliban suspects, increasingly with the use of unmanned drones, Reuters reports.

Christof Heyns, U.N. special rapporteur on extrajudicial, summary or arbitrary executions, asked Washington to clarify if the policy had a basis in international law, according to a report to the United Nations Human Rights Council. The 47-member Geneva forum is to hold a debate on the matter Tuesday.

U.S. drone strikes killed at least 957 people in Pakistan in 2010 alone, the report said, citing figures from the Pakistan Human Rights Commission.

The report comes shortly after a Taliban commander in northwest Pakistan announced that polio vaccines would be withheld from children if the United States continues drone strikes in the area, according a Taliban statement released Saturday.