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US military drone - Source: ONE News -
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Missiles fired from suspected US drone aircraft at an insurgent
training camp in Pakistan's South Waziristan tribal region on the
Afghan border killed nine militants, intelligence officials
said.
Civilian casualties caused by the missile-carrying, pilotless
drones, operated by the US Central Intelligence Agency, have
infuriated many Pakistanis and made it harder for the government to
co-operate with the United States.
Here are some facts about the US missile attacks, the controversy
they have caused, and a list of some of the more prominent
militants killed, according to Pakistani officials.
Why does the United States attack?
Many al Qaeda members and Taliban fled to north-western Pakistan's
ungoverned ethnic Pashtun belt after US-led soldiers ousted
Afghanistan's Taliban government in 2001.
From their sanctuaries there the militants have orchestrated insurgencies in Afghanistan and Pakistan. The United States and Afghanistan have pressed Pakistan to eliminate the sanctuaries.
Apparently frustrated by Pakistan's inability to do so, the
United States is hitting the militants itself.
How many attacks?
The United States has carried out about 40 drone air strikes since
the beginning of last year, most since September, killing more than
335 people, including many foreign militants, according to a tally
of reports from Pakistani intelligence agents, district government
officials and residents.
There have been 19 attacks this year.
Some of the people reported killed
January 28, 2008 - A senior al Qaeda member, Abu
Laith al-Libi, was killed in a strike in North Waziristan.
July 28 - An al Qaeda chemical and biological
weapons expert, Abu Khabab al-Masri, was killed in South
Waziristan.
October 31 - A mid-level al Qaeda leader, Abu
Akash, was killed in an attack in North Waziristan.
November 19 - An Arab al Qaeda operative
identified as Abdullah Azam al-Saudi was killed in Bannu
district.
November 22 - Rashid Rauf, a Briton with al Qaeda
links and the suspected ringleader of a 2006 plot to blow up
airliners over the Atlantic, was killed in an attack in North
Waziristan. An Egyptian named as Abu Zubair al-Masri was said to be
among the dead in the same attack.
January 1, 2009 - A US drone killed three foreign
fighters in South Waziristan, Pakistani agents said. A week later,
a US counter-terrorism official said al Qaeda's operational chief
Usama al-Kini and an aide had been killed in South Waziristan. The
US official declined to say how or when they died.
Where are the drones launched from?
A senior US lawmaker, Senator Dianne Feinstein, told a US Senate
hearing in February that drones were being operated and flown from
an air base inside Pakistan. Pakistan denied that, saying there was
no permission for the strikes, nor had there even been.
US Position
The United States has shrugged off Pakistani protests. It says the
missile strikes are carried out under an agreement with Islamabad
which allows Pakistani leaders to decry the attacks in public.
US officials said last month the United States had given Pakistan data on militants in the Afghan border area gathered by surveillance drones in Pakistani airspace under an agreement with Pakistan.
Confirming the existence of the programme, which started in
mid-March, US military officials said it allowed the Pakistani
military to request missions over specific areas of its Federally
Administered Tribal Areas.
Pakistan's position
Pakistan denied any such agreement. Pakistan supports the US-led
campaign against militancy but does not allow foreign military
operations inside its territory.
It says the drones violate its sovereignty and undermine efforts to deal with militancy because they inflame public anger and bolster support for the militants. Pakistan has pressed the United States to provide it with drones to allow it to conduct its own anti-militant operations.
