The latest figures on the number of civilian casualties by US drone strikes in Pakistan are “controversial” as they came after Washington released its military aid to Pakistan, an analyst says.

“The release of these figures does come after the United States has decided to release several billion dollars that were held for some time and now are available to the Pakistan military,” Marvin Weinbaum, Scholar in Residence, Middle East Institute, told Press TV on Saturday.

“These figures obviously are a great contrast to earlier figures which have had the number of civilian casualties in hundreds. They’re very interesting because of their source. It’s not the United States government. It’s the Pakistan military,” he added.

On Wednesday, Pakistan said that three percent of people killed in US drone attacks since 2008 were civilians.

The Ministry of Defense to the Senate said 317 drone strikes have killed 2,160 militants and 67 civilians since 2008.

The number is in sharp contrast with past government calculations and estimates by independent organizations.

UN Special Rapporteur on Human Rights and Counterterrorism Ben Emmerson recently said that the Pakistani government had reported at least 400 civilian fatalities as a result of US drone strikes since 2004.

The Bureau of Investigative Journalism says between 308 and 789 civilians have died in US drone attacks in Pakistan since 2008.

“The truth is that it’s very difficult to know how many civilians were killed because the independent reporting from the region is impossible and even the military which has better access in fact it does not have good access to these areas particularly in North Waziristan where many of these attacks take place,” Weinbaum said.

“It’s controversial as to the actual number and that we probably will never get a really good figure,” he concluded.
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