Some military personnel were killed, but the majority of victims were civilians, according to state news agency SANA. Its report was accompanied by graphic photos of corpses and body parts.
Previous kidnappings of Westerners in Mali have occurred further into the desert, and are believed to be the work of Al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM).
The United States, having fully embraced the armed and unmanned aerial vehicles as its weapon of choice, is deploying them in Afghanistan, Pakistan, Iraq, Yemen, Libya and Somalia.
ISLAMABAD — Pakistanis are frustrated by the presence of the CIA in their country, and are particularly angry with the agency’s use of drones, which have killed an untold number of civilians.
The boys, aged nine to 14, from Khyber School, were targeted in the Matani area close to Pakistan's tribal belt, which the United States considers the most dangerous region on earth.
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