For eight years, the US has carried out, without formal acknowledgement, a program to kill al-Qaeda-linked “terrorists” away from the battlefields in its Afghan war, a New York Times editorial stated on Friday.

“Using drones, the Central Intelligence Agency has made 320 strikes in Pakistan since 2004, killing 2,560 or more people, including at least 139 civilians,” the editorial added, quoting Long War Journal, a Web site that tracks “counterterrorism operations.” It further noted that “another 55 assassination drone strikes took place in Yemen.”