U.S. launches first drone strike in Pakistan since election

[Ash]

PESHAWAR, Pakistan (Reuters) - A U.S. drone strike killed seven people in Pakistan's North Waziristan region on Wednesday, security officials said, the first such attack since a May 11 general election in which the use of the unmanned aircraft was a major issue.

U.S. President Barack Obama recently indicated he was scaling back the drone strike programme, winning cautious approval from Pakistan, a key ally in the U.S. fight on militancy.

A Pakistani Foreign Ministry official condemned all such strikes.

"Any drone strike is against the territorial integrity and sovereignty of Pakistan and we condemn it," the official, who declined to be identified, told Reuters.

Pakistani security officials and Pashtun tribesmen in the northwestern region said the drone fired two missiles that struck a mud-built house at Chashma village, 3 km (2 miles) east of Miranshah, the region's administrative town.

They said seven people were killed and four wounded. It was not immediately clear if the victims were the intended targets.

"Tribesmen started rescue work an hour after the attack and recovered seven bodies," said resident Bashir Dawar. "The bodies were badly damaged and beyond recognition."

North Waziristan is on the Afghan border and has long been a stronghold of militants including Afghan Taliban and their al Qaeda and Pakistani Taliban allies.

Prime Minister-elect Nawaz Sharif said this month that drone strikes were a "challenge" to Pakistan's sovereignty.

"We will sit with our American friends and talk to them about this issue," he said.

Obama's announcement of scaling back drone strikes was widely welcomed by the people of North Waziristan, where drones armed with missiles have carried out the most strikes against militants over the past seven years, sometimes with heavy civilian casualties.

The strike also coincided with the first session of the newly elected provincial assembly of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, the former Northwest Frontier Province.

Former cricketer Imran Khan's Pakistan Tehrik-e-Insaf party won most seats in the assembly and has been very critical of drone strikes in the region.

Pakistan's Foreign Ministry said last week it appreciated Obama's acknowledgement that force alone did not work, adding that the root causes of terrorism had to be addressed.

"On the use of drone strikes, the government of Pakistan has consistently maintained that (they) are counter-productive, entail loss of innocent civilian lives, have human rights and humanitarian implications and violate the principles of national sovereignty, territorial integrity and international law," it said.

 

[AVERAGE INDIAN]

DRONE STRIKES Season 2 Episode 1 , the entertainment will never disappoint you

Producer and Director Barack Obama , Pentagon

CAST - United states armed forces , Predator drone's

 

[Blackwater]

drone strike should continue and go further inside pakistan

 

[The Last Stand]

@W.G.Ewald Sir,

I think that drone strikes are good but ineffective so far. What is your expert opinion on this? (You are from U.S. and I am not aware of anyone with better knowledge of their purpose)

 

[W.G.Ewald]

@W.G.Ewald Sir,

I think that drone strikes are good but ineffective so far. What is your expert opinion on this? (You are from U.S. and I am not aware of anyone with better knowledge of their purpose)

From the article:

U.S. President Barack Obama recently indicated he was scaling back the drone strike programme, winning cautious approval from Pakistan, a key ally in the U.S. fight on militancy.

It remains to be seen if Obama does what he says. He has been criticized for his statement. If it is in his interest to diminish that criticism (e.g., because of scandals in his administration) he may change his policy again.

 

[Ash]

I wonder if Imraan Khan had won the election whether we would be seeing drone strikes in Pakistan?

 

[Abhijeet Dey]

What is the status of DRDO Rustom-2 Unmanned Combat Aerial Vehicle? Should this drone be supplied to CRPF to eliminate Maoists in India? Or should it be supplied to Afghanistan against ISI-backed Taliban?

 

[rock127]

drone strike should continue and go further inside pakistan

Should include Islamabad as well.

 

[Payeng]

What is the status of DRDO Rustom-2 Unmanned Combat Aerial Vehicle? Should this drone be supplied to CRPF to eliminate Maoists in India? Or should it be supplied to Afghanistan against ISI-backed Taliban?

India currently do not have a policy of using air power upon internal problems.

 

[AVERAGE INDIAN]

Waliur Rehman, Pakistani Taliban's No. 2, killed in apparent drone strike

PESHAWAR, PAKISTAN A suspected U.S. drone strike Wednesday killed the No. 2 commander of the Pakistani Taliban, although the militant group denied he was killed.

CBS News correspondent Elizabeth Palmer reports from London that Waliur Rehman's death has been confirmed. Rehman appeared to have died in a drone strike early Wednesday morning that destroyed a house and killed six other people.

Rehman's death is a strong blow to the militant group responsible for hundreds of bombings and shootings across Pakistan.

Two Pakistani intelligence officials told The Associated Press that their informants in the field saw Rehman's body while a third said intelligence authorities had intercepted communications between militants saying Rehman was killed. The officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to brief the media.

A spokesman for the Pakistani Taliban however denied the reports.

"This appears to me to be false news. I don't have any such information," said Ahsanullah Ahsan, speaking to The Associated Press by telephone from an undisclosed location.

Most of North Waziristan is under militant control, and journalists do not have access to the area, making it difficult to independently confirm such incidents.

The strike was the first since Pakistan's landmark elections on May 11 in which the American drone program was a hotly debated topic.

It was also the first strike in Pakistan since President Obama's speech last Thursday during which he discussed more restrictive rules he was implementing on the use of the controversial drones in places such as Pakistan and Yemen.

The tribal region in northwestern Pakistan is home to a variety of local and Afghan militant outfits, including al Qaeda-linked fighters. The U.S. has often criticized Pakistan, saying it does not vigorously target militants in these areas who then attack American troops in neighboring Afghanistan.

Pakistani officials say their military is already overtaxed by fighting militants in both the tribal regions and in the southwestern province of Baluchistan and that the casualties they've already incurred have not been properly recognized.

Washington's drone program is extremely unpopular in Pakistan, although the number of strikes has dropped significantly since the height of the program in 2010.

The strikes usually target al Qaeda-linked insurgents or other militants who fight in Afghanistan against NATO, although some strikes have killed militants who are at war with the Pakistani government.

The Pakistani Taliban has been battling government forces for years in a bid to push them from the tribal regions, cut Pakistan's ties with the U.S. and eventually establish their brand of hardline Islam across Pakistan.

The U.S. government in 2010 offered $5 million for information leading to Rehman under their "Rewards for Justice" program.

While Rehman was mostly known for his activities in Pakistan, the U.S. said in its announcement that he also participated in cross-border attacks in Afghanistan against U.S. and NATO personnel.

Rehman was wanted in connection with his involvement in an attack on a U.S. base in Khost, Afghanistan, in 2009 that killed seven Americans, the U.S. said.

Pakistan's incoming prime minister, Nawaz Sharif, has repeatedly said he is against the use of American drones on Pakistani soil, and Pakistani officials have demanded publicly that the program be stopped.

Senior civilian and military officials are known to have supported some of the attacks in the past, but many say that is no longer the case.

Pakistan has been hit by 355 such attacks since 2004, according to the New America Foundation, a U.S.-based think tank. The figure does not include Wednesday's strike. Up to 3,336 people have died in the strikes, said the think tank.

Mr. Obama's speech last Thursday was his most extensive comments to date about the secretive drone program, which has come under increased criticism for its lack of accountability.

The president cast drone strikes against Islamic militants as crucial to U.S. counterterrorism efforts but acknowledged that they are not a "cure-all." The president also said he is deeply troubled by civilians unintentionally killed in the strikes and announced more restrictive rules governing the attacks — measures that his advisers said would effectively limit drone use in the future.

Waliur Rehman, Pakistani Taliban's No. 2, killed in apparent drone strike - CBS News

 

[rock127]

Just another proof that PAKISTAN IS A TERRORIST COUNTRY!

 

[W.G.Ewald]

@W.G.Ewald Sir,

I think that drone strikes are good but ineffective so far. What is your expert opinion on this? (You are from U.S. and I am not aware of anyone with better knowledge of their purpose)

As many Taliban leaders are killed, they will be replaced.

 

[The Last Stand]

As many Taliban leaders are killed, they will be replaced.

That's why it's so ineffective. There's no end to people who want to be brainwashed religiously

 

[pmaitra]

India currently do not have a policy of using air power upon internal problems.

Well, drones do not necessarily have to be used for bombing. They can be used for surveillance. Especially if there is a convoy going through the forests, they could be used to reconnoiter the area to make sure there are no Naxalites waiting to strike. I must say, however, that I recall people discussing that UAV cameras might not be sufficient to detect people under thick forest cover.

 

[SajeevJino]

Well, drones do not necessarily have to be used for bombing. They can be used for surveillance. Especially if there is a convoy going through the forests, they could be used to reconnoiter the area to make sure there are no Naxalites waiting to strike. I must say, however, that I recall people discussing that UAV cameras might not be sufficient to detect people under thick forest cover.

India Using UAV's in the Naxal/Maoist Affected Region

 

[pmaitra]

India Using UAV's in the Naxal/Maoist Affected Region

That is good to hear. Are they effective?

 

[SajeevJino]

That is good to hear. Are they effective?

Nope ..It's failed to retrieve tactical Movements

It seems that the Maoist knew that the UAV would take at least two and a half hours to reach the site of the attack and by that time they would have dispersed in the nearby jungle and villages, an intelligence official said after deconstructing the chain of events.

"Perhaps, that is why they wrapped up their strike by 6.30 pm and did not waste time to disperse. When the UAV flew over the site of the attack, it was already past 7 pm. The Sun had set by then and there was no sign of the attackers. Even the UAV's thermal imagers failed to detect any noteworthy movement

Red tactics stump intel sleuths - India - DNA

 

[pmaitra]

Nope ..It's failed to retrieve tactical Movements

It seems that the Maoist knew that the UAV would take at least two and a half hours to reach the site of the attack and by that time they would have dispersed in the nearby jungle and villages, an intelligence official said after deconstructing the chain of events.

"Perhaps, that is why they wrapped up their strike by 6.30 pm and did not waste time to disperse. When the UAV flew over the site of the attack, it was already past 7 pm. The Sun had set by then and there was no sign of the attackers. Even the UAV's thermal imagers failed to detect any noteworthy movement

Red tactics stump intel sleuths - India - DNA

I did not read the whole article, but from the two quotes, looks like the author of the article is doused in colourful liquids.

What is the point of sending a UAV after the attack? To take pictures of dead and injured people? Why was the UAV not sent before the convoy? Why were multiple UAVs not sent out flanking the convoy? As a matter of fact, are they carrying out random flight of UAVs to gather intel of Naxalite movements?

With the way we are handling this situation, it is no surprise that this festering problem is not yet resolved.

 

[SajeevJino]

They tired to Track the Attackers Using the UAV ..

 

[SajeevJino]

The attack Happens in 6.30 pm

UAV reach the Spot at 7.00 pm

Maoist knew that the UAV would take at least two and a half hours to reach the site

but the UAV reached at 30min after the Attack ..but failed to track the attackers where they go