There are still plenty of human beings in the operational loop it takes a team of about 180 to run and service a Predator and it is clear that the responsibility for the decision to fire a missile rests as much with the pilot in a distant command centre as with a pilot in any cockpit.
With permission from the Yemeni authorities, the CIA launched an unmanned Predator drone aircraft from Djibouti, identified a car carrying the suspect and five others, then fired a Hellfire missile at it, killing all the occupants.