FILE - This Jan. 31, 2010 file photo shows a U.S. Predator drone flies over the moon above Kandahar Air Field, southern Afghanistan. (AP Photo/Kirsty Wigglesworth, File)

LONDON (AP) — Britain's High Court has blocked a legal challenge to the possible role of the country's spy agencies in aiding covert CIA drone strikes in Pakistan's northwest tribal region.

Noor Khan, a 27-year-old whose father was killed by a drone strike in northwest Pakistan in March 2011, had asked the High Court to examine whether U.K. intelligence officials assisted the action and whether they may be liable for prosecution.

His lawyers argued that intelligence officials could be committing war crimes by helping locate targets for U.S. drones.

High Court judges on Friday refused to allow Khan to bring a legal challenge, saying his legal arguments had been an "attempt to shroud" his real goals — getting the court to publicly condemn U.S. activities in northwest Pakistan.

Associated Press
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