AP, Washington
President Barack Obama is expected to disclose as early as Friday the number of civilians killed in US military and CIA drone strikes in Pakistan, Yemen and Africa since he took office and will issue an executive order that makes protecting civilians a more integral part of planning US military operations, according to activists and other individuals familiar with the report.
The White House is to disclose the casualties with a range of numbers indicating that an estimated 100 civilians have been inadvertently killed by 500 drone strikes since 2009.
UK to send 250 more soldiers to Iraq
PTI, London
Britain will send 250 additional soldiers to Iraq to help the Iraqi Army build on the recent success in combating ISIS terrorists who have occupied large swathes of land in the country. Most of the soldiers will be going to Al Asad airbase at Anbar province in western Iraq, around 160 km west of the capital Baghdad.
India’s designed jet joins air force
Reuters, New Delhi
India’s first locally-built combat aircraft officially took to the skies on Friday, 33 years after it was cleared for development, marking a long-held goal of cutting expensive imports to build a domestic defence-industrial base. India’s fighter aircraft fleet, made up of a mix of Russian, British and French planes, is down to 33 squadrons as against the air force’s requirement of 45 to face Pakistan and China.
