US / War on Terror Milestone Near in US Counter-Terror Operations Number killed in drone strikes will exceed those killed in 9/11 attacks By John Johnson, Newser Staff Posted Oct 23, 2012 7:15 PM CDT Copied In this 2010 file photo, an unmanned U.S. Predator drone flies over Kandahar Air Field, southern Afghanistan. (AP Photo/Kirsty Wigglesworth, File) The Washington Post notes that a milestone is near in post-9/11 counter-terror operations: The number of militants and civilians killed in the US drone campaign is about to tick over 3,000 and surpass the number of victims in the 2001 attacks. The nugget is part of a larger story on how the US is developing something called a "disposition matrix" to guide the hunt for and targeting of terror suspects through the next decade as traditional wars wind down. Click for more details on that. (More War on Terror stories.) Report an error