Global IssuesAFPAK: Give Us This Day Our Weekly Drone
Hundreds of Al-Qaeda and Taliban leaders have fallen to drones since the first attack that killed Taliban leader Nek Muhammad in South Waziristan. Now many local people welcome drones.
'Drone attacks have become quite popular with the local population because these are spot-on and there are lesser chances of killing innocent people,' says Jehangir Alam, professor of political Science at the Government College in Mardan, one of 24 districts of the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province.
The U.S. carried out the first drone attack on Jun. 18, 2004. So far 215 drone attacks have hit militants in South Waziristan, North Waziristan, Khyber Agency and Bajaur Agency in the Federally Administered Tribal Area (FATA) of Pakistan.
U.S.-led coalition forces dismissed the Taliban government in Kabul towards the end of 2001, accusing it of involvement in the 9/11 attacks in Washington and New York. Many Taliban and their Al-Qaeda friends crossed over into neighbouring Pakistan across the 2400-km border, and took refuge in the sprawling FATA from where they started targeting U.S. and Pakistani forces.
Al-Qaeda number 3 Abu Hamza Al Baseer was killed along with four others in drone attacks carried out in 2005. Since 2007 the U.S. has stepped up the attacks.
A total of 2,049 persons have been killed in these attacks so far. There has been criticism that not all of these were militants.
In 2009 about 50 drone strikes killed at least 415 people, including many foreign militants, according to officials. On Dec. 17, three back-to-back drone attacks killed about 60 persons belong to jihadist outfits.
There were a total of 112 air strikes in western tribal regions last year. Ninety-eight of these were reportedly carried out in North Waziristan, killing 605 people - 507 of them Pakistanis and 98 foreigners.
The Pakistan National Assembly expressed strong concern over the drone attacks Dec. 28, and asked the U.S. government to stop these strikes immediately.
But locally not everyone takes the official Pakistani position. 'Drones are an extremely popular weapon,' Hameed Akhtar a local journalist in Miramshah, North Waziristan tells IPS. 'The local population is quite satisfied the way they are fired.
'Militants are passing sleepless nights due to fear of drone attacks,' he said. 'They are on the run. Everyday three to five drone aircraft come hovering over the North Waziristan territory, and fire missiles when they find their target.'
'The list of successes the U.S has achieved by using pilotless planes is long and impressive,' says Taza Gul a lecturer at the Degree College in Bannu. 'People here appreciate the drone strikes because these are Al-Qaeda and Taliban specific.'
Bannu is one of 24 districts of the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province, and is home to about 100,000 displaced persons from South Waziristan where the Pakistan army launched an operation against Taliban militants in 2007.
'We have been living with relatives here. The U.S. should expedite the drone attacks to eliminate the Taliban as soon as possible so we could return to our homes,' says Shah Wali, a shopkeeper from South Waziristan. 'The Taliban are responsible for all our woes.'
Pakistan has demanded drones from the U.S. so it can carry out the attacks. The U.S. has not accepted this demand yet.
A study by the London School of Economics suggested in June 2010 that Pakistani intelligence agencies provide funding, training and sanctuary to the Afghan Taliban. Taliban field commanders interviewed for the report said that Pakistan’s Inter Services Intelligence (ISI) agents even attend Taliban supreme council meetings. The report was later endorsed by the U.S. government.
The Taliban’s widening campaign in southern Afghanistan is made possible in part by direct support from operatives in Pakistan’s military, despite Pakistani government promises to sever ties with militant groups fighting in Afghanistan, according to U.S. government officials.
'We like drone strikes because only three strikes in a single day have killed 50 militants,' says Javid Khan, a resident of Miramshah and a student at Peshawar University. 'The government forces have not been able to kill them in the past six years.'
'The U.S. is now sick of the Pakistan government and is doing everything to target Taliban in FATA,' says political analyst Jafar Hussain. He said that the U.S. and the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation (NATO) are not satisfied with the way Pakistan is handling the war against terrorism, and are now relying solely on drone strikes.
© Inter Press Service (2011) — All Rights ReservedOriginal source: Inter Press Service