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US UAV shot down in Pakistan

Gates Is Pessimistic On Pakistani Support

By Ann Scott Tyson
Washington Post Staff Writer

Wednesday, September 24, 2008;

Pakistan's leaders and military cannot publicly support U.S. cross-border operations against militant groups in Pakistan's western tribal areas, but such strikes are needed to protect American troops in Afghanistan and defend the United States against its gravest terrorist threat, Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates said yesterday. :angry:
"We will do what is necessary to protect our troops," Gates told the Senate Armed Services Committee. Asked whether Pakistan's government would back unilateral U.S. military operations into Pakistan, he said: "I don't think they can do that."
Gates said that despite a growing insurgency in Afghanistan, fueled by fighters from Pakistan, the spring of 2009 is the earliest the Pentagon would be able to send as many as three more U.S. combat brigades there to meet a request of American commanders for about 10,000 more troops.

"I believe we will be able to meet that commanders' requirement, but in the spring and summer of 2009," Gates said.

Western Pakistan has surpassed Afghanistan and Iraq as the base for al-Qaeda and other Islamist extremist groups that now pose the biggest terrorist threat to the United States, Gates said. "If you ask me today, after the successes that we've had against al-Qaeda in Iraq, where the greatest threat to the homeland lies, I would tell you it's in western Pakistan," he said.

Moreover, fighters flowing across the border from Pakistan account for about 30 to 40 percent of the attacks in Afghanistan, Marine Gen. James E. Cartwright, vice chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, told the committee.


Gates said he hoped for greater cooperation with Pakistan's new government against militant groups that also are escalating attacks within Pakistan, such as the bombing of the Marriott Hotel in Islamabad on Saturday that killed more than 50 people.

U.S. officials denied a report yesterday that Pakistani troops and tribesmen had shot down an American drone near the Afghan border.

Gates acknowledged that the United States and Pakistan have fundamental differences in how they define their foe. For example, he said, while Pakistani officials oppose the presence of al-Qaeda and other foreign fighters, they have had long-term relationships with insurgent groups founded by Taliban leaders Jalaluddin Haqqani and Gulbuddin Hekmatyar, and "they don't, in many respects, see the Taliban as their enemy," he said.

"Frankly, I think one of the keys in terms of expanding our cooperation with the Pakistanis is identifying common threats," he said. "They do not see some of these groups in the same way we do."

Committee Chairman Sen. Carl M. Levin (D-Mich.) and ranking Republican Sen. John W. Warner (Va.) voiced concern over strains in U.S.-Pakistani relations as a result of the U.S. cross-border strikes. They noted that about 80 percent of the cargo and 40 percent of the fuel for U.S. troops in Afghanistan flow through Pakistan.

Concerned that those supply lines could be cut off, the Pentagon began this month testing alternative routes for getting materials into landlocked Afghanistan, Cartwright said.

Pressed by lawmakers to make Afghanistan a higher priority, Gates said that based on current demands in Iraq, "we do not have the forces to send three additional combat brigades to Afghanistan at this point" without extending war-zone tours for troops.

Moreover, Gates said, dispatching large numbers of American and other Western troops may not be the best answer to rising violence in Afghanistan, which "has never been hospitable to foreigners." An alternative would be to make expanding Afghan forces a higher priority, he said. The United States is supporting a plan to double the size of the Afghan army from about 60,000 to 120,000, with 12,000 more soldiers in training, over the next five years.

The size of the U.S. force in Afghanistan has increased from fewer than 21,000 troops two years ago to more than 31,000 today, but senior commanders there say their efforts remain hampered by a shortage of adequate ground forces, helicopters and other equipment.

Gates said he expected that as U.S. force levels increase, the contingent of 30,000 troops from NATO allies and other countries is unlikely to grow much.

Good article Sir but font is very small. Can you please make it bit larger?
 
Why are the Americans so interested in Angoor Adda?

Nobody's rooting for it to have been shot down or crashed. No one in Pakistan is glad that it has come to this. But they have it coming.

Angoor Adda is a district of South Waziristan

North+South Waziristan= big part of the FATA, the frontier tribal area bordering Afghanistan, where is being highly suspected by the US to be hideout of Al-Qaeda and Taliban.

if I remember correctly, the US force has been entering FATA since 2002, and most of times they chose south Waziristan.

 
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US drone crashed in South Waziristan: ISPR
Updated at: 1155 PST, Wednesday, September 24, 2008
US drone crashed in South Waziristan: ISPR ISLAMABAD: Pakistan army on Wendesday confirmed US spy plane had crashed in Angoor Adda area on Tuesday night.

In a statement issued today, ISPR said U-S predator drone has crashed in Angoor Adda area of South.

The ISPR said that plane crashed apparently due to mal-functioning. The wreckage of UAV has been recovered from the site by the Security Forces personnel and the matter is under detailed investigation.:angry::cry::cry:

US drone crashed in South Waziristan: ISPR - GEO.tv

i heard on discovery channel that usualy when an uav is out of control or it is captured it has the cabability of self destruction ???:coffee:
 
BUT, again angoor adda, what is there, why again and again just ANGOOR ADDA.if US had any information of high value targets , why there are not sharing with pakistan, it will not serve anything good to USA, if they keep flying these drones just to kill inocent tribesmen!:tsk::angry:
 
BUT, again angoor adda, what is there, why again and again just ANGOOR ADDA.if US had any information of high value targets , why there are not sharing with pakistan, it will not serve anything good to USA, if they keep flying these drones just to kill inocent tribesmen!:tsk::angry:

actually us want to spread hate in the poeple. more pa strike in tribal areas and more poeple are angry versus pakistan. that,s why us always says do more do more. they are using islamic jehad against pakistan just like we did against the soviets. alongside with their afghani puppet and those bastards hindus and jews.:whistle:
a question why the taliban never attacks the us supplys covoys passing via pakistans tribal area?????
 

24 September 2008 08:54 UK

The wreckage of a suspected US spy plane has been found near the Afghan border by the Pakistani army, but it has denied claims it was shot down.

A military spokesman told the BBC that the drone was recovered on Tuesday in the South Waziristan tribal area and the wreckage was being examined.

The spokesman said that the crash was apparently due to malfunctioning.

The US has not confirmed the loss of the drone. It has denied that any of its aircraft have been shot down.

'Detailed investigation'

"A surveillance unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV), while flying over the Pak-Afghan border yesterday [Tuesday] night, crash landed on this side of the border... apparently due to malfunctioning," a Pakistani military spokesman said.

"The wreckage of the UAV has been recovered from the site by the security forces personnel and the matter is under detailed investigation," the spokesman said in a statement.

Tensions in the border region are rising .

The statement did not say who the drone belonged to, but security officials said they were in no doubt that it was an American aircraft.

The BBC's M Ilyas Khan in Karachi says that this is the first time that a US drone has crashed inside Pakistani territory.

The crash comes amid recent reports that the Pakistani troops have fired to prevent the US forces or choppers from operating inside Pakistan, our correspondent says.

The Pentagon said it had no report of any crash, while the CIA denied any knowledge of the incident.

"We have no reports of any loss of DoD (Department of Defence) drones," Lieutenant Colonel Mark Wright told the AFP news agency.

Officials said that tribesmen in the village of Jalal first found the drone before troops later retrieved it.

The area is known to be a stronghold of the Taleban and al-Qaeda militants.

Different account

"No firing was heard in the area so there is no question of it being shot down," a senior Pakistani security official told AFP on condition of anonymity.

But local residents gave a different account.

"The tribesmen fired at the drone and it fell out of the sky," one unnamed resident told AFP.

US President George Bush said on Tuesday that he wanted to help Pakistan protect itself.

He was speaking moments before his first meeting with Pakistani President Asif Ali Zardari at the sidelines of the UN General Assembly in New York.

Mr Bush did not refer directly to the controversial US strikes in Pakistan that have caused bilateral tensions.

There is growing anger in Pakistan at the US forces in Afghanistan violating Pakistani sovereignty.
 

ISLAMABAD, Pakistan (CNN) -- Pakistani security forces say they have recovered the wreckage of a U.S. drone that crashed inside Pakistan after flying across the border from Afghanistan.

The incident comes amid tension Washington and Islamabad over missile strikes from U.S. drones at suspected militants on the Pakistan side of the border.

But U.S. officials in Washington and Afghanistan denied a drone had crashed in Pakistan Tuesday.

"We've have had queries both yesterday and today about what you're talking about, but we have no reports of a downed plane," military spokesman Capt. Scott Miller told CNN Wednesday.

The Pakistani military said the drone crashed "apparently due to malfunctioning" at a village near the border region of Angoor Adda on Tuesday night.

The U.S. Embassy had no comment, spokesman Lou Fintor said Wednesday.

The Angoor Adda region is in South Waziristan, a region of northwest Pakistan where drones have fired missiles several times this year at suspected al Qaeda and Taliban targets.

The United States is the only nation with forces in the region that is known to be able to launch missiles from the small, quiet and deadly drones.

U.S. attacks inside Pakistan has infuriated Islamabad, which sees such raids as a violation of its sovereignty.

Earlier this month, the U.S. military sent ground forces into South Waziristan without Islamabad's permission. And media reports have said that several months ago, President George W. Bush authorized U.S. commandos to carry out ground assaults inside Pakistan without seeking Islamabad's permission.

Bush did not directly refer to the incursions when he met his Pakistani counterpart, Asif Ali Zardari, for the first time at the United Nations on Tuesday.

"Your words have been very strong about Pakistan's sovereign right and sovereign duty to protect your country, and the United States wants to help," Bush said.

The United States maintains that Taliban and al Qaeda forces operate with relative impunity in tribal areas along Pakistan's border with Afghanistan. It says extremists use those areas as a staging ground to attack U.S. forces and their allies inside Afghanistan.

On Saturday, Pakistan's president said the country would not let foreign powers violate the country's sovereignty to pursue terrorists.

"We will not tolerate the violation of our sovereignty and territorial integrity by any power in the name of combatting terrorism," Asif Ali Zardari, said in his first speech to parliament since taking the presidential oath this month.

The president's comments echoed those of Gen. Parvez Kayani, Pakistan's military chief, who said recently that the country would not allow foreign forces to conduct operations inside Pakistan.

After news of the U.S. military operation in South Waziristan, Kayani said Pakistan's "territorial integrity ... will be defended at all cost and no external force is allowed to conduct operations ... inside Pakistan."
 

Incident comes as US-Pakistan relations become increasingly strained over American cross-border operations

Jenny Percival and agencies guardian.co.uk
Wednesday September 24 2008

The Pakistani army said today it had found the wreckage of a suspected US spy plane near the Afghan border, but denied claims that it was shot down.

The incident comes amid strained ties between Washington and Islamabad over a series of missile strikes from American drones at suspected militant targets on the Pakistan side of the border.

Three Pakistani intelligence officials said earlier that troops and tribesmen had shot down the aircraft late on Tuesday near Jalal Khel, a village in Pakistan's South Waziristan region.

However, a Pakistan army statement said that a technical problem appeared to have brought the aircraft down and that, having recovered the wreckage, it was investigating further.

US officials did not confirm the loss of any of their drones, which can also be equipped with video surveillance equipment.

A confirmation that Pakistani forces have fired on US troops or aircraft could trigger a crisis in relations between Islamabad and Washington, who are close but uncomfortable allies in the American-led "war on terror".

Pakistani leaders are condemning an increasing number of American operations across the border from Afghanistan, especially a highly unusual raid into South Waziristan by US commandoes earlier this month.

The government says it is trying to resolve the dispute diplomatically.

However, the army has vowed to defend Pakistan's territory "at all cost" and this latest incident was at least the third this month in which Pakistani troops have reportedly opened fire to counter an incursion.

George Bush met his Pakistani counterpart, Asif Ali Zardari, for the first time in New York yesterday, but did not directly refer to the incursions in public comments after their talks.

"Your words have been very strong about Pakistan's sovereign right and sovereign duty to protect your country, and the United States wants to help," Bush said.

The three Pakistani intelligence officials said the drone had been hit after circling the Angoor Ada area of South Waziristan for several hours. They said wreckage was strewn on the ground.

A senior US official challenged the account. "We're not aware of any drones being down," said the official.

American officials have been pressing Pakistan to take stiffer action against militants in its tribal belt, a wild mountainous region considered a staging ground for attacks in Afghanistan and Pakistan, including Saturday's massive truck bombing of the Marriott hotel in Islamabad.

Pakistan insists it is doing what it can and complains that cross-border raids increase sympathy for the Islamic militants.

Troops are already locked in grinding campaigns against militants in the Bajur and Swat regions of the north-west.

A government official in Bajur said today that security forces backed by helicopter gunships had killed at least 20 more militants in fighting that erupted the previous day near Khar, the main town.

US officials have praised the operation, in which the military says hundreds of militants and dozens of troops have died. It declines to estimate how many civilians have died in the fighting.

Meanwhile in the south-west of the country, the police said today that a suicide car bomber had rammed a military jeep, killing an 11-year-old girl and injuring 11 troops and two civilians.

The police said the attacker rammed the military vehicle on the road to the airport in Quetta, the capital of Baluchistan province. The area is considered a hub for Taliban militants fighting in neighbouring Afghanistan and against Pakistani forces in the border region.
 
actually us want to spread hate in the poeple. more pa strike in tribal areas and more poeple are angry versus pakistan. that,s why us always says do more do more. they are using islamic jehad against pakistan just like we did against the soviets. alongside with their afghani puppet and those bastards hindus and jews.:whistle:
a question why the taliban never attacks the us supplys covoys passing via pakistans tribal area?????

Why look for bastards in Hindus and Jews ?
 
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Quite an interesting situation has developed in the light of national & international reports.

US is totally denying saying that "no" UAV has been shot lost. On the other hand, PA has "found wreckage" of the drone but saying it was technical fault that brought it down.

Why US is denying that it has lost any drone?

Possibility exist that PA or tribals have shot it down as witnesses said that drone was flying very low. A very clear hidden message has been sent to US by shooting this drone. But of course in front of media it will be a "technical fault" from one side and other would completely "deny" that any loss at all has taken place. :azn:
 
actually us want to spread hate in the poeple. more pa strike in tribal areas and more poeple are angry versus pakistan. that,s why us always says do more do more. they are using islamic jehad against pakistan just like we did against the soviets. alongside with their afghani puppet and those bastards hindus and jews.:whistle:
a question why the taliban never attacks the us supplys covoys passing via pakistans tribal area?????

You're strongly warned against that kind of language for any religion.
 

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