London under fire for Pakistani drones

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LONDON, March 13 (UPI) -- British Foreign Secretary William Hague could face murder charges for passing intelligence to U.S. forces employing airstrikes in Pakistan, lawyers said.

The Long War Journal, an online forum monitoring conflict in Central Asia, estimates at least 64 drone missile strikes hit targets in Pakistan in 2011, about half the total compared with 2010. Some 18 top al-Qaida figures were killed in the strikes.

Leigh Day and Co., a British law firm representing Noor Khan, whose father was allegedly killed in a U.S. airstrike, says it has "credible, unchallenged" evidence that Hague played a role in passing British intelligence to the U.S. military, the BBC reports.

Lawyers at the firm said civilians suspected of giving secrets to the United States could be liable as "secondary parties to murder." Pakistan, the lawyers stated, isn't at war with the United States or Great Britain.

The British Foreign and Commonwealth Office didn't comment on the issue because of the ongoing legal process.