US Drone strikes in Pakistan are illegal under international law.

[TruthSeeker]

Drones kill al-Qaeda, Taliban leaders in Pakistan’s tribal region

By Joby Warrick and Haq Nawaz Khan, Published: October 27

A pair of U.S. missiles killed two al-Qaeda operations planners in Pakistan’s northwestern tribal region this month, part of a 48-hour fusillade that also killed another al-Qaeda operative and a top deputy in the militant Haqqani network, U.S. officials confirmed Thursday.

The deaths were disclosed on the same day that a suspected CIA drone killed five leaders of a Pakistani Taliban unit linked to attacks on international forces in Afghanistan, according to local authorities in Pakistan. The Thursday strike brought to five the number of U.S. missile attacks in the lawless tribal area since Oct. 1.

Separate strikes Oct. 14 killed Abu Miqdad al-Masri and Abd al-Rahman al-Yemeni, two al-Qaeda veterans tied to the group’s senior leadership and actively involved in planning operations overseas, said two senior U.S. officials familiar with details of CIA operations. The officials said Masri was a former associate of Osama bin Laden.

“They were key figures important to what is left of the network,” said one of the two U.S. officials, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss the highly classified CIA drone program.

Release of the names was delayed while U.S. officials sought to verify the deaths, the officials said. Other alleged senior militant operatives killed during a flurry of missile strikes Oct.13-14 were previously identified as Ahmed Omar Abdul Rahman, also known as Saifullah, the son of the blind Egyptian cleric tied to the 1993 bombing of New York’s World Trace Center; and Janbaz Zadran, a high-ranking member of the Haqqani network, which battles U.S. troops in Afghanistan.

The rapid-fire strikes were part of an ongoing effort to target militant leaders and undermine the groups’ ability to communicate and plan, the two U.S. officials said. The Obama administration has sought to increase pressure on the Haqqanis amid high-profile attacks on U.S. forces in Afghanistan in recent months.

Pakistani officials described the drone attack Thursday as targeting leaders of a Taliban branch that has staged cross-border attacks on international troops. Among the militants killed, a Pakistan security official said, was Khan Mohammad, a deputy of the prominent Taliban commander Maulvi Nazir.

The five militants killed were returning from Afghanistan when six drone-fired missiles struck their vehicle, the official said.

Drones kill al-Qaeda, Taliban leaders in Pakistan’s tribal region - The Washington Post

Five top Taliban chiefs killed in drone strike

Published: October 28, 2011

PESHAWAR - At least five senior commanders of Molvi Nazir group including his younger brother were reportedly killed when missiles fired from a US drone hit a vehicle in South Waziristan Agency on Thursday.

Molvi Nazir is an influential Taliban leader in South Waziristan and his group is accused of attacking foreign troops in neighbouring Afghanistan.

Around six missiles were fired from the unmanned aircraft at a moving vehicle at around 10am in Toragola area of tehsil Barmal of South Waziristan. The strike killed all five occupants, reportedly including a younger brother, Hazrat Omar, of Molvi Nazir and his cousin named Khan Syed Muhammad. The other three killed were identified as Miraj Wazir, Ashfaq Wazir and Commander Khan Muhammad.

The sources said the vehicle that was completely destroyed in the attack was heading to Azam Warsak area from nearby village of Tora Gola. They said that it was confirmed that Nazir’s younger brother, Hazrat Omar Wazir, has been killed.
They also confirmed the killing of commander Khan Muhammad, who was also known as Sathai and acted as a deputy to Maulvi Nazir.

Five top Taliban chiefs killed in drone strike | Pakistan | News | Newspaper | Daily | English | Online

 

[salmakh84]

now instead of one, they said all killed were big commanders!! lols... funny how people still believe in thm

 

[TruthSeeker]

US Predator strike kills 13 Pakistani Taliban fighters in South Waziristan

By BILL ROGGIO, October 28, 2011

At least 13 members of the Movement of the Taliban in Pakistan, including a deputy of Hakeemullah Mehsud, the group's emir, have been killed in a previously unreported US Predator airstrike.

The airstrike took place on Oct. 26 in South Waziristan, according to Reuters, but was not immediately reported. The exact location of the strike was not provided. Two missiles were fired at a compound. Pakistani officials said that 13 Taliban fighters were killed, but tribal leaders put the number of deaths at 22. All are said to be "militants."

Among those thought to have been killed was Taj Gul Mehsud, whom Reuters described as "a senior Taliban commander and close aide" to Hakeemullah. Taj Gul's death has not been confirmed, however.

Hakeemullah's Movement of the Taliban in Pakistan is closely allied with al Qaeda and is supported and sheltered by so-called "good Taliban" leaders Mullah Nazir in South Waziristan and Hafiz Gul Bahadar in North Waziristan. Both Nazir and Bahadar are supported by the Pakistani military despite their close alliances with al Qaeda and the Movement of the Taliban in Pakistan.

Hakeemullah's forces are at war with the Pakistani state and also send troops to Afghanistan to fight NATO forces. Two of Hakeemullah's top deputies have recently signaled that their group is willing to make peace with the Pakistani state. He has vowed to carry out attacks in the US, and was behind the failed car bomb plot at Times Square in New York City on May 1, 2010.

The Oct. 26 strike in South Waziristan was one of three in the tribal areas over the course of two days. On Oct. 27, Predators hit Nazir's commanders in South Waziristan and a group of militants in North Waziristan. Among those killed in the Oct. 27 strike in South Waziristan were Hazrat Omar, one of Nazir's brothers who served as the group's operational commander in Afghanistan; Khan Mohammed, a senior deputy; and Miraj Wazir, one of Nasir's cousins.

Read more: US Predator strike kills 13 Pakistani Taliban fighters in South Waziristan - The Long War Journal

 

[karan.1970]

Six killed in North Waziristan drone attack | Pakistan | DAWN.COM

NORTH WAZIRISTAN: Six suspected militants were killed on Sunday in a drone attack in North Waziristan’s Datta Khel area, DawnNews reported.

The drone fired two missiles into a vehicle as it drove through a village near Datta Khel town about 30 kilometres west of Miramshah, the main town in North Waziristan district, Pakistani security officials told AFP.

A house was also partly destroyed.

 

[Perceptron]

US drone strikes fail to mobilise Pakistan masses.

A female student raises a placard during a Tehreek-e-Insaf rally against drone attacks in Karachi. – Reuters (File Photo)

---

ISLAMABAD: Campaigners condemn US drone strikes in Pakistan as extra-judicial assassinations that kill hundreds of civilians, but popular protests against them are conspicuous by their rarity.

Opinion polls suggest barely nine per cent of the Pakistani public support the strikes eek, and anti-Americanism is rife in the country of 180 million people, a key ally of Washington in the war on terror.

Even so, rallies protesting the CIA-run operation against Taliban and al Qaeda allies in Pakistan’s tribal areas on the Afghan border are few and thinly attended.

The government says 30,000 people have been killed in attacks across Pakistan in the last decade – 10 times the 3,000 people who perished in the September 11, 2001 suicide hijackings in the United States.

Cricket hero turned politician Imran Khan, a staunch critic of US policy in Pakistan and the “hypocrite” government in Islamabad, led an anti-drone demonstration on Friday but only around 2,000 people joined him.

Earlier in the week, Khan was among the speakers at a press conference in Islamabad where lawyer Shahzad Akbar held up a piece of twisted, rusting metal.

“These are the remains of a drone missile fired in August 2010 in Datta Khel, North Waziristan,” he said.

“It killed the wife and two children of a local tribesman, Bismillah Khan. This proves the US wrong when they say no civilians are killed by their drones.”

Akbar is backed by British-based charity Reprieve, whose founder and director Clive Stafford Smith said drone strikes were “in violation of the laws of war and Pakistan sovereignty”.

But behind the politics, security officials say the issue is not so simple.

Campaigners struggle to win public sympathy for people killed in remote mountains, difficult to access and often under rebel control.

The United States says the area, particularly the districts of North and South Waziristan, is infested with Taliban and al Qaeda allies who need to be eliminated to protect US soldiers in neighbouring Afghanistan.

The Pakistani military is itself battling a Taliban insurgency in the northwest, and more than 4,700 people have been killed in attacks across the country since government troops stormed a radical mosque in Islamabad in 2007.

The drone strikes have cleared many Pakistani Taliban from the battlefield, including its main founder Baitullah Mehsud in 2009.

“Imran Khan and others are demonstrating against drones and their victims. But can any of these people go to North Waziristan and come back alive?” said one Pakistani source close to senior security officials.

US cables leaked by WikiLeaks showed that the government privately acquiesces in the drone strikes, even if it does not pay to say so in public.

“The Pakistani army supports drone strikes because they are efficient for eliminating TTP (Taliban) people… and give it a good reason not to start a dangerous offensive in North Waziristan,” one military official told AFP.

The military and the general public distance themselves from the tribes of Waziristan, seeing them as ferociously independent and ultra-conservative with a heavy concentration of Taliban in their ranks.

“People don’t want to start a war to protect tribes whose members put bombs in the country,” said a Pakistani security official.

Estimates of the drones’ casualties vary hugely. Western researchers believe around 300 attacks have killed 1,700 to 2,860 people since 2004.

Akbar, who sued the CIA a year ago demanding compensation on behalf of strike victims, says 80 per cent of those killed are civilians.

The Pakistani authorities say it is more like 10 per cent. The non-partisan New America Foundation think tank puts the figure at 20 per cent.

The London-based Bureau of Investigative Journalism said in August that 775 civilians could have been killed since 2004, including 168 children.

Even if the victims are proven to be fighters, “killing people that way is a violation of state law, they deserve at least a trial”, said Akbar.

Saifullah Khan Mehsud, director of the Fata Research Centre, a think tank devoted to tribal belt issues, says the drone strikes cause mental health problems and are widely reviled there, but that there is no culture of protest.

“They think all this is a game between Pakistan and foreign agencies. So their attitude is to stay away from war on terror issues. It is not a culture of demonstration there,” he told AFP.

“Only activists from right-wing parties demonstrate, because it’s a violation of national sovereignty, so they have to say something.”

 

[Bratva]

Four miners killed in North Waziristan drone attack


MIRANSHAH: Four local tribesmen working at chromites mines were killed and two men riding a motorbike were injured in a US drone strike on the Doga Madakhel village in Dattakhel area in North Waziristan Agency Sunday.

Tribal sources said the drone fired four missiles and hit a car carrying four miners traveling from Miramshah to Dattakhel to work in the chromites mines near the Afghan border. All four were residents of Danday Darpakhel village, located five kilometres to the west of North Waziristan’s headquarters, Miramshah. The bodies, damaged beyond recognition, were brought to Danday Darpakhel village and laid to rest at the local graveyard.

One of them was identified as Saeedur Rahman, a dealer of chromites. The other three, whose identity could not be ascertained, were miners. The two other men riding motorbike behind the car sustained serious injuries and were shifted to a hospital in Miramshah. They are stated to be in a critical condition.

Eyewitnesses in Doga village said the car caught fire when the drone hit it. They said the villagers wanted to extinguish the fire, but were unable to do so since four drones kept flying overhead for a while.

Four miners killed in North Waziristan drone attack

 

[Perceptron]

Don't you see a contradiction between this

The bodies, damaged beyond recognition, were brought to Danday Darpakhel village and laid to rest at the local graveyard.

and this

One of them was identified as Saeedur Rahman, a dealer of chromites.

Any neutral sources quoting them as miners ? Al-Jazeera or Xinhua would do.

 

[TruthSeeker]

US missiles kill four in North Waziristan

AP Yesterday

PESHAWAR: Pakistani intelligence officials say US drone-fired missiles have killed four suspected militants close to the Afghan border.

The officials say the strike Monday on a vehicle took place close to the town of Mir Ali in the North Waziristan tribal region.

The identities of those killed were not known.

The officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to brief the media.

US missiles kill four in North Waziristan | Provinces | DAWN.COM


MIRANSHAH: A US drone strike on Monday killed three suspected militants in northwestern tribal region, officials said.

The drone fired two missiles into a vehicle as it drove through a village near Mubarak Shah town about 15 kilometres (9 miles) east of Miranshah, the main town in North Waziristan district, security officials told AFP.

"Three militants have been killed in the attack," one security official said.

The officials said that the drone targeted a moving vehicle.

"The vehicle was moving. There are reports that four militants were killed in the strike but we are verifying the death of the fourth militant. We have confirmed the death of three others," said the officials.

The identities of the dead were not clear. AGENCIES

US drone kills three in North Waziristan :: SAMAA TV ::

 

[TruthSeeker]

Four civilians reported killed in latest CIA drone strike

October 31st, 2011 | by Chris Woods

A CIA drone strike in North Waziristan on Sunday is reported to have killed four local chromite miners – the first claims of civilian deaths in the ongoing US campaign since August 22.

Initial reports said that up to six alleged militants were killed when a vehicle was struck at around noon on Sunday. A nearby house was also damaged in the attack by up to four US Reaper drones. But concern soon emerged that those killed were in fact civilians, with the Nation describing the deceased as ‘peaceful tribesmen.’

On Monday leading Pakistan newspaper the News reported that those killed were not militants, but in fact workers from a local chromite mine. It named one of the dead as Saeedur Rahman, a chromite dealer.

Chromite ore is a valuable mineral used in a number of industrial processes. In March 2011 a CIA strike killed between 19 and 42 civilians when drones attacked a tribal meeting called to resolve a dispute over a nearby chromite mine. The CIA declined to comment on Sunday’s attack.

Many killed

Sunday’s drone attack was one of eight recorded by the Bureau in Pakistan during October, and brings to 390 the minimum number of civilians reported killed in the CIA’s seven-year drone campaign. The maximum reported number of civilian deaths now stands at 779.

Although the US continues to claim that it has not killed any ‘non-combatants’ in Pakistan since May 2010, the Bureau’s own data shows that between 109 and 279 civilians have been reported killed in US drone strikes between May 1 2010 and Sunday’s attack. Fourteen of those killed are reported to be children.

A further strike on Monday evening in Mir Ali killed up to four alleged militants, according to news reports.

Four civilians reported killed in latest CIA drone strike: TBIJ

 

[TruthSeeker]

Analysis: Has CIA changed its strategy in Pakistan drone war?

October 27th, 2011 | by Chris Woods

A fresh US drone strike killed a group of senior militants in Pakistan today, the latest in a string of recent attacks which have reportedly killed a high ranking militant, or High Value Target as they are known in military jargon.

On 6 September former US General David Petraeus took charge at the Central Intelligence Agency. Since then the Bureau has recorded twelve CIA drone strikes, eleven in Pakistan and one in Yemen. Of these at least seven have killed senior militants. Another attack reportedly targeted but missed an HVT. The Bureau is also awaiting confirmation on a possible thirteenth attack, in which three more militant commanders may have died. In total up to twenty named militants have been reported killed.

Could it be that the US is moving away from its recent strategy of using drone strikes to kill low-ranking militants in Pakistan?

In the early years of the drone campaign under President Bush, almost all attacks were against HVTs who were viewed as a strategic threat to US interests. But over the years those rules were relaxed, first by Bush and then by President Obama. Three days after the failed Pakistan Taliban attempt to bomb Times Square in May 2010, for example, ‘the CIA received approval to target a wider range of targets in Pakistan’s tribal areas, including low-level fighters whose identities may not be known,’ according to Reuters.

And in recent years HVTs were only occasionally killed. More commonly strikes have hit alleged low-ranking, often un-named militants.

But the situation may be changing. The 27 October drone strike in Waziristan, which reportedly killed the brother of key militant commander Maulvi Nazir, his deputy commander and as many as three other local commanders, is just the latest in a string of attacks where reports name senior militants.

Dr Micah Zenko, a drones expert with the US-based Council on Foreign Relations, urges caution: ‘There’s been no real indication so far that there’s been a shift in strategy,’ he told the Bureau. ‘With almost 300 strikes one would expect statistical blips like this.’

Well maybe.

As many as twenty named militants have been reported killed by the CIA since Petraeus took over in September

High death tolls

The Agency uses what it terms ‘pattern of life’ analysis, along with opportunistic attacks, to strike at groups which threaten its operations in Afghanistan. Such strikes can often result in high death tolls. An attack on August 10 killed up to 25 unnamed alleged members of the Haqqani Network, for example.

But such strikes may carry greater risk of errors. On March 17 an opportunistic attack struck a tribal meeting in North Waziristan. Between 32 and 53 people were killed, most of them civilians, including 19 people the Bureau was able to identify by name. Following uproar in Pakistan – and after the publication of the Bureau’s data on the strike – a US counter terrorism official told the New York Times:

There’s no question the Pakistani and U.S. governments have different views on the outcome of this strike. The fact is that a large group of heavily armed men, some of whom were clearly connected to Al Qaeda and all of whom acted in a manner consistent with A.Q.-linked militants, were killed.’

Pakistan may be able to tolerate strikes on HVTs. But it appears unable and unwilling to sell attacks on unnamed alleged militants to its angry population.

Knockout blow

The killing of Osama bin Laden by US Special Forces on May 2 was reported to have resulted in a ‘library’ of intelligence material. Three days after his death US drone strikes resumed in Yemen after a nine-year break, when a Reaper tried to kill Anwar al-Awlaki. Within a month, senior al Qaeda commander Ilyas Kashmiri was killed by CIA drones in Pakistan. Senior US officials began talking up the prospect of delivering a knockout blow to Al Qaeda in Pakistan and elsewhere.

When the Bureau published its full database of CIA drone strikes in Pakistan on August 10, it identified 128 named militants killed in attacks since 2004. Since then, at least twenty new names have been added to that list, most of them HVTs from Al Qaeda, the Haqqani Network and the Pakistan Taliban. The October 27 strike alone is said to have killed a number of commanders from Maulvi Nazir’s militant group, with an attack the previous day apparently killing a senior Pakistan Taliban commander.

A further four named militants were killed by the CIA in Yemen on September 30, including US citizens Anwar al Awlaki and Samir Khan. The Bureau is seeking clarification on whether a subsequent Yemen strike – which killed another al Qaeda commander along with Awlaki’s 16-year old son and others – was also the work of the Agency.

Bigger Fish

Is this just a statistical blip? Caution is certainly needed when trying to detect patterns, but it is a theme the Bureau will continue to monitor in its ongoing analysis of US drone strikes.

The CIA declined to comment.

Analysis: Has CIA changed its strategy in Pakistan drone war?: TBIJ

 

[TruthSeeker]

Number of CIA drone strikes in Pakistan hits 300

October 14th, 2011 | by Chris Woods

The United States ‘covert’ drone war in Pakistan reached a new milestone today with the 300th attack on alleged militants in the country’s tribal areas, according to research by the Bureau.

Just before dawn on Saturday, CIA drones struck a housing compound in Angor Adda, South Waziristan. Up to six alleged militants died in the attack with at least three injured. The casualties were linked to local militant commander Maulvi Nazir. He is viewed as hostile by the US because of militant attacks inside Afghanistan, despite his having a long-standing peace deal with Pakistan.

The CIA attack is the fourth in Waziristan in 48 hours. On Friday more than 2,000 mourners attended the funeral of Maulana Iftiqar, the head of a local religious school – and reported jihadist – killed in a strike the day before. A local politician told the assembled mourners that ‘America should realise that these attacks are causing hate against it, and see these thousands of people who are here to attend funeral of a martyr.’

CIA drone strikes on Pakistan are occurring at a frequency of one every four days

The Bureau has now identified 300 drone strikes since June 17 2004. Of these, 248 have occurred during President Obama’s three years in office, rising to a frequency of one strike every four days.

According to a detailed analysis of the attacks, at least 2,318 people have been killed in the CIA campaign, the majority of them alleged militants.

But among them at least 386 civilians – and as many as 775 – have reportedly died, the Bureau’s investigations show, including more than 170 children. And more than 1,100 people have been reported injured.


In Numbers: CIA drone strikes in Pakistan
Total reported killed : 2,318 – 2,912
Civilians reported killed : 386 – 775
Children reported killed : 173
Total reported injured : 1,141- 1,225
Total strikes : 300
Obama strikes : 248

Denial

The CIA itself recently admitted to killing 2,050 people with its drones – all but 50 of them combatants – after the Bureau published its database in August. Despite substantial evidence published by the Bureau of civilian deaths caused by its strikes, the US continues to claim that it has killed no ‘non-combatants’ in Pakistan since May 2010.

The Bureau’s data is drawn from reputable sources such as AP, Reuters, the New York Times and credible Pakistani media. It is also cross-referenced where possible against leaked US intelligence documents and diplomatic cables; the writings of academics, politicians and former intelligence officials; pending legal cases; and some commissioned field work in Waziristan.

Number of CIA drone strikes in Pakistan hits 300: TBIJ

 

[TruthSeeker]

2000 civilians is a huge number, you must be very happy....

Obviously you don't read what you post .......

 

[rockstarIN]

Imran Khan and others are demonstrating against drones and their victims. But can any of these people go to North Waziristan and come back alive?” said one Pakistani source close to senior security officials.

 

[regular]

Imran Khan and others are demonstrating against drones and their victims. But can any of these people go to North Waziristan and come back alive?” said one Pakistani source close to senior security officials.

Yes! they can go over there and will come back alive. Humans lives over there too....

 

[Evil Flare]

Yes! they can go over there and will come back alive. Humans lives over there too....

NO , Genies live there ....