The United States’ use of predator drones to attack targets in Pakistan could constitute a war crime:  That’s the allegation in a new report from Amnesty International, which says too many of those killed had absolutely nothing to do with terrorism.

“People who are clearly no imminent threat to the U.S., are not fighting against the U.S., are being killed. The U.S. has to come clean publicly with the justifications for these killings,” said the Amnesty report’s author, Mustafa Qadri.

London-based Amnesty conducted a detailed investigation into two strikes in North Waziristan, an area under the control of al Qaeda and the Taliban.  They interviewed more than 60 people. 

One of the strikes in the village of Ghundi Kala in October 2012 killed Mamana Bibi, 68, a grandmother and the wife of a retired school principal.  She was gathering vegetables at the time of impact.

“We were really shocked, especially with the grandmother case.  At first we thought, that can't be true – there must be something more to this,” said Qadri.

But the weather was clear at the time of the attack, providing a good view to the drone operators of who was on the receiving end of that Predator strike,

The other attack killed 18 laborers who were just around in the shade after a hard day’s work.  The youngest victim was 14 years old.

“The US has to come clean publicly with the justifications for these killings,” Qadri added.

Publicly, Islamabad has opposed the drone strikes as being too dangerous to civilians.  Although it’s believe that Pakistani security forces have given the names and locations of targets to the US military, in hopes of ridding itself of internal enemies.

US Drone strikes have killed as many as 3,600 people in Pakistan since 2004; Islamist militants have killed more than 40,000 Pakistanis since 2001.