Thursday, June 12, 2014

Hello Drones (please come fly our friendly skies)

It is unbelievable but the last time there was a drone attack was in December, last year. The initiation of talks appeared to be a positive step (perhaps it was done to pre-empt an attack from the right-flank by Imran Khan) but now post-Karachi it is clear that the Pashtun nationalists bent on making war are more numerous and determined than those who will settle for peace.

In our thinking, the motivation for this wide-scale war is that Pashtun-stan (as imagined by the nationalists) will not be content with a joined-up South-East Afghanistan and North-West Pakistan, the access to sea is a must. Thus Karachi is so to speak, the jewel in the crown, the real prize in the battle.
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The last drone attack in the country had been carried out on Dec 25 last year near Miramshah, the regional headquarters. Three suspected militants had been killed in that attack on a compound in Qutab Khel area. Residents said that US drones kept hovering over North Waziristan throughout the day. The missile explosions were heard up to 20km away, they said.


The government had urged the United States to stop drone strikes in the tribal areas during its negotiations with the Taliban.

According to AFP, an intelligence official in Miramshah said the missiles had struck a pick-up truck carrying six militants and laden with explosives. “Four of them were Uzbeks and two were Punjabi Taliban,” he said.
The militants had parked their truck along the outer wall of the compound — both of which were destroyed and remained ablaze for some time.
Another security official said the authorities had intercepted a radio message about the attack in which “one of the militants was asking others to reach the site and search for any one injured in the strike and also to dig up the bodies”.

The area west of Miramshah where Wednesday’s attack was carried out is considered a stronghold of the Al Qaeda-linked Haqqani network.

The strike came as Pakistani Taliban said that Uzbek militants had been involved in the siege of the Karachi airport on Sunday night in which 37 people, including the 10 attackers, had been killed.
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Link: http://www.dawn.com/news/1112127/drone-attack-kills-4-uzbek-militants

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regards

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