U.S. lowers threshold for Pakistan drone strikes
ISLAMABAD |
ISLAMABAD (Reuters) - The United States appears to have widened drone aircraft attacks against al Qaeda-linked militants in Pakistan and may have killed a senior leader of the group, Pakistani and U.S. officials said on Tuesday.
While mostly low-ranking militants from different nationalities have been killed, a senior al Qaeda leader, identified as Shaikh al-Fateh, was believed to have been killed in a similar strike on September 26, Pakistani intelligence officials said.
And in the latest strike on Tuesday, a pilotless drone aircraft targeted a suspected militant hideout in Pakistan's South Waziristan region near the Afghan border, killing four militants, intelligence officials said.
Including Tuesday's attack there have been 21 strikes carried out by the remotely piloted drones in September, the highest number in a single month on record.
"We are not surprised at this surge because we knew that as Americans build up their presence in Afghanistan, they will intensify pressure on the militants on both sides of the border and these attacks are part of the same strategy," a senior security official told Reuters.
"It appears that they have lowered their threshold and are hitting every militant irrespective of his ranking in al Qaeda, the Taliban, the Haqqani network," he said.
U.S. President Barack Obama ordered in an extra 30,000 troops for Afghanistan late last year, the last units of which arrived this month.
Most recent drone strikes in Pakistan targeted the Haqqani faction. Named after veteran mujahideen leader Jalaluddin Haqqani, the group closely linked to al Qaeda is now led by his son Siraj.
VALUED TOOL IN ANTI-MILITANT CAMPAIGN
It is one of the most effective Afghan factions fighting U.S.-led NATO forces in Afghanistan, and has also been described as a strategic asset for U.S. ally Pakistan, which wants leverage in Afghanistan to counter India's influence there.
A cousin of Siraj is believed to have been killed in one of the strikes, Pakistani intelligence officials said.
U.S. officials say drones are valuable weapons which have killed high-profile Taliban and al Qaeda figures in an area in northwest Pakistan described as a global hub for militants.
"Our operational tempo has been up for a while now, we have good information driving it, and -- given the stakes involved -- we hope to keep the pressure on as long as we can," said a U.S. official who asked not to be named.
"The mix of threats isn't new - sometimes it's groups like the Haqqanis, and sometimes it's al-Qaeda and the Pakistani or Afghan Taliban. They're all deadly."
Many al Qaeda members and Taliban fled to northwestern Pakistan's ungoverned ethnic Pashtun belt after U.S.-led soldiers ousted Afghanistan's Taliban government in 2001. From their sanctuaries there, the militants have orchestrated insurgencies in Afghanistan and Pakistan.
Most of the recent strikes took place in North Waziristan, the only one of seven Pakistani tribal regions where the army has not yet launched any major operation against the militants, despite U.S. pressure to do so.
(Additional reporting by Phil Stewart in Washington and Kamran Haider in Islamabad; Editing Chris Allbritton and Louise Ireland)
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I believe they are now seeing what we can do and how well we can do it and even though they still have some backing in the lawless regions these drone attacks are making them look over their shoulders even there.
The threshhold for attacking them should be low and we should attack them as many times as we possibly can, as many ways as we possibly can, and make their lives as miserables as their deaths.
Cashman57 -you are an idiot. You don’t even expect to wins “hearts and minds”. You may as well forget any possible hope of succeeding and I hope the military doesn’t listen to trigger happy fools like you.
If there are more like you, you can forget anything but an all out explosion or rage from the Middle East and even the surrounding regions. And Mr. Lieberman (Mr. Liverwits would be a better name) didn’t help matters at all with a recent statement regarding the peace talks. Make it easy for the Chinese and Russians (although I doubt they would want to set foot there again) to have to somehow step in and calm the insanity.
The Chinese – with sheer manpower alone could occupy every village and put an end to the Taliban. We know their attitude toward the disruptive and even mindless influence of religion. And the Russians would have a reason to reoccupy the “Stans”. Not every battle can be won with weapons alone.
Does anyone besides me see the distinct possibility of global nuclear war here? And of course the Israelis will take a few pot shots at Iran (I seriously doubt it would be the other way around). That could really get the ball rolling – right off the cliff.
If you have any memory at all – recall that what really stopped the Nazi’s was the almost complete destruction of every major industrial city in Europe. Afghanistan doesn’t have any major industrial capacity. The only Afghan equivalent would be the destruction of every Afghan and a few hundred thousand Pakistani’s.
Perhaps that is what will end this insanity? And this was the war the UN actually thought was legitimate. Perhaps it won’t end until we have succeeded in acting out a death wish on a planetary scale, made ourselves look like the 21st century equivalent of the Wehr Macht by remote control, and caused events to unfold – and wars seem to have a mind of their own – and the big powers shoot themselves in their own heads. They have already done a job on their wallets.
But it will be really galling to have to say someday – “all hail Saint Osama”. If comments like yours are supposed to indicate what the “responsible governments” can do, than “all hail bin Laden” starts to sound plausible too.
Cashman – you smug fool.
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