Dictionary

signature strike en · NOUN

Etymology

From the justification for such strikes being suspicious patterns of behavior thought to be "signatures" of terrorists.

Meanings

1. A military attack which is based on detecting suspicious activity rather than confirmed intelligence of terrorism.
   • This uncertainty is at the heart of signature strike targeting. Attacks that cannot determine whether a target is legitimate are illegal in IHL thanks to the ban on indiscriminate attacks in Article 51 of Additional Protocol I (1977). 2016, Jack McDonald, Ethics, Law and Justifying Targeted Killings: The Obama Administration at War, →ISBN:
   • For example, former counterterrorism czar Richard Clarke responded to the news of the January 15, 2015, signature strike in Pakistan as follows, "President Obama said he was going to stop them [i.e., signature strikes], and clearly he didn't." 2015, Avery Plaw, Matthew S. Fricker, Carlos Colon, The Drone Debate: A Primer on the U.S. Use of Unmanned Aircraft Outside Conventional Battlefields, →ISBN, page 251:
   • This group of civilians was marked as displaying suspicious behavior and consequently became the victime of a signature strike that killed twenty-three men and wounded twelve others, including a woman and three children. 2013, Joseph Pugliese, State Violence and the Execution of Law, →ISBN, page 196:
   • The United States does not disclose what behaviors justify a signature strike, nor does it provide any guidance on this issue. 2014, Peter L. Bergen, Daniel Rothenberg, Drone Wars, →ISBN, page 46:

Forms