drone strikes
Unmanned aerial attacks
Drone strikes are military attacks carried out by unmanned aircraft, typically targeting suspected terrorists or enemy combatants in remote regions.
The term emerged in the early 2000s as the U.S. expanded remote warfare in Pakistan, Yemen, and elsewhere.
Drone strikes allow precision targeting without risking pilots, but critics cite civilian casualties and questions of sovereignty: The village was hit by a drone strike.
The phrase often carries connotations of distant, antiseptic warfare conducted far from battlefields.
- airstrikesMilitary attacks from aircraft
- extrajudicialOutside court authority
- counterterrorismCombating organized political violence
- covert operationsSecret military or intelligence activities
- civilian casualtiesNoncombatants killed in conflict
collateral damage · hellfire · precision targeting · war crimes · blowback · reconnaissance missions · human rights · regional instability · double tap · rules of engagement · proxy wars · missiles · targeted killing · kill list · counterinsurgency · unmanned · international law · surveillance
- American HegemonyMonroe Doctrine, manifest destiny, territorial expansion, interventionism, regime change
- Air Forcesair force, US Air Force, Luftwaffe, RAF, squadrons
- PakistanIslamabad, Karachi, Punjab, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Balochistan
- Air Combatairstrikes, fighter pilot, bombing run, combat aircraft, bomb run
- gunfireshoot, gunshot, artillery fire, fire, gunfire
- Mideast PolicyCamp David, Oslo Accords, Iran Deal, Iraq War, Gulf War
drone strikesground combat
Fighting on terrain
boots on the ground · hand-to-hand combat · trench warfare · close-quarters combat · ground invasion
drone strikespeace negotiations
Diplomatic talks ending conflict
diplomacy · ceasefire · peace talks · treaty · de-escalation
drone strikestotal war
Conflict engaging entire nations
carpet bombing · saturation bombing · ground war · occupation · nuclear strike