U.S. departs Pakistan base, source says
By Nick Paton Walsh and Nasir Habib, CNN
Islamabad, Pakistan (CNN) -- U.S. military personnel have left a southern base in Pakistan said to be a key hub for American drone operations in the country's northwestern tribal areas, a senior Pakistani intelligence official told CNN on Friday.
Drones are said to take off and get refueled for operations against Islamic militants at Shamsi Air Base in Pakistan's Balochistan province.
The development comes amid a public furor over American drone attacks, which have killed civilians in the past.
A suspected U.S. drone strike in the Pakistani tribal region killed 25 people on Friday, and on March 17, 44 people -- mostly civilians -- were killed in another strike.
Another senior Pakistani intelligence official, who did not want to be identified discussing a sensitive issue, confirmed Americans had been using the base as a center of operations for launching drone strikes. He was not able to confirm the Americans had left.
The first official confirmed that American personnel were no longer operating out of the base, but he could not say whether they had left voluntarily or at the request of the Pakistani government.
The operation of the base -- which the U.S. government has not publicly acknowledged -- has always been presumed to have occurred with tacit Pakistani military consent.
It was not clear from the Pakistani officials when the presence there began or when it ended.
A U.S. military official who did not want to be identified told CNN: "There are no U.S. forces at Shamsi Air Base in Balochistan." He did not respond at the time or in writing to queries as to whether U.S. personnel had been based there in the past.
The departure of American personnel -- if confirmed -- would be significant because the development has emerged at a time of increased strain between Islamabad and Washington, sparked by the continuing drone attacks and by the Raymond Davis affair in which a CIA contractor shot dead two Pakistani men in a Lahore neighborhood.
It has always been unclear how many drone bases the United States operates in or near Pakistan. But Friday's attack in North Waziristan that killed 25 people would indicate the U.S. maintains drone capability to strike tribal areas.
U.S. departs Pakistan base, source says - CNN.com
