Islamabad, Feb. 15 (ANI): US Vice-President Joe Biden has said that American troops have killed 12 of the top 20 Al Qaeda leaders and taken out 100 of their affiliates during President Obama’s regime.

“We have eliminated 12 of the top 20 people. We have taken out 100 of their associates. We’ve sent them under ground,” The Dawn quoted Bidden, as saying on NBC television.

In a separate interview, Biden said the United States was using all possible means to force Al Qaeda out of the Pak-Afghan region.

“We have been relentless, absolutely relentless in isolating Al Qaeda, central Al Qaeda, Osama bin Laden, Al Qaeda coming out of the Afghan-Pakistan region,” he said.

“We have been relentless in our effort to deal with keeping them isolated. They’ve been unable to operate in any significant, coordinated way,” he added.

Meanwhile, a recent study by a Washington think-tank - New America Foundation - reported that under President Obama, drone strikes had taken out half a dozen militant leaders while killing 530 others.

Of those, 250 to 400 were lower-level militants, and a quarter of them were civilians.

However, counter-insurgency experts David Kilcullen and Andrew Exum have pointed out that out of 700 people killed in drone attacks, 98 per cent were civilians. (ANI)