30 June 2011
Pakistani troops backed by jets and helicopter gunships have killed 40 militants in a restive tribal area bordering Afghanistan in the past three days, a military commander said Thursday.Brigadier Aftab Ahmad told AFP by telephone that his forces had destroyed 17 militant hideouts in the Baizai region under his command in the lawless tribal area of Mohmand. "Militants were regularly attacking our posts on the Afghanistan border at Shonkari and Mithai...
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28 June 2011
The announcement by President Obama on 22 June 2011 of substantial withdrawals of United States troops from Afghanistan by September 2012 marks an important moment in the almost decade-long war in the country. The impact of the decision will be felt on the current diplomatic calculations over the nature of a settlement that will bring the war to an end. It may also impinge on the presidential-election campaign in the US that reaches a climax in November...
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Two Drone Strikes Kill At Least Nine Suspected Fighters in Kurram
20 June 2011
At least nine suspected fighters have been killed after US drones fired missiles at a vehicle and a residential compound in the Kurram tribal agency, in Pakistan's northwest, according to Pakistani officials. Al Jazeera's sources said that in the first of Monday's two attacks, a vehicle was hit and two suspected fighters were killed. The vehicle was attacked again but just a few minutes later, as the local tribesmen rushed to a nearby residential...
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US Drone Attack Strikes Militant Training Camp near Afghan Border
08 June 2011
US missiles struck a militant training camp in Pakistan's tribal district of North Waziristan on Wednesday, killing 20 fighters close to the Afghan border, security officials said. The camp in the Shawal area was run by fighters loyal to Pakistani warlord Hafiz Gul Bahadur, whose loyalists attack in Afghanistan, and was targeted by five US missiles at around 12.00pm (0700 GMT), the Pakistani officials said. "The death toll is 20. It is likely to...
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07 June 2011
U.S. and Pakistani authorities disagree sharply over claims that senior al Qaeda leader Ilyas Kashmiri was killed in a recent missile strike, officials from both countries said on Monday, suggesting sharp strains persist between authorities in Washington and Islamabad. Two days ago, intelligence officials in Pakistan claimed that Kashmiri, a figure in both al Qaeda and a Pakistan-based affiliate, was killed by a U.S. drone-borne missile in northwestern...
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Al Qaeda Commander Kashmiri Allegedly Killed in One of Weekend's Three Drone Strikes
06 June 2011
US missiles killed 18 militants in Pakistan’s tribal district of South Waziristan on Monday, destroying compounds and a vehicle in the deadliest drone strikes for months, officials said. Three strikes were reported just days after Pakistani officials said they believed senior al Qaeda commander Ilyas Kashmiri had died in a similar attack late Friday, also in South Waziristan which borders Afghanistan. Washington has called Pakistan’s...
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Pakistani Warplanes Kill at Least 16 in Orakzai
31 May 2011
Pakistani warplanes attacked Taliban positions in the northwestern Orakzai region on Tuesday, killing 17 militants, a senior regional government official said. Orakzai is one of seven ethnic Pashtun tribal areas where the Pakistani army has tried to root out militants with offensives against their strongholds. The strike came a day after a local newspaper reported that Pakistan will launch an offensive in North Waziristan, a known sanctuary for al...
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Thousands of Pakistanis Protest US Drone Attacks as Strikes Continue
24 May 2011
Imran Khan, Pakistan's cricket-great-turned-politician and the chairman of the Tehreek-e-Insaf party (Movement for Justice), has led around 6,000 protesters in Karachi demanding an end to US drone strikes on Pakistani soil. Thousands of anti-US protesters had gathered since Saturday near the port of Pakistan's largest city Karachi to stage a two-day sit-in against what they regard as violations of Pakistan's territory by US and NATO forces. Khan...
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WikiLeaks Cables Reveal Pakistani Military Requested “Continuous Drone Coverage”
20 May 2011
Secret internal American government cables, accessed by Dawn through WikiLeaks, provide confirmation that the US military’s drone strikes programme within Pakistan had more than just tacit acceptance of the country’s top military brass, despite public posturing to the contrary. In fact, as long ago as January 2008, the country’s military was requesting the US for greater drone back-up for its own military operations. Previously...
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Parliamentary Session on US Raid Allegedly Reveals US Use of Pakistani Airbase for Drone Strikes
16 May 2011
In an unusual, and apparently heated, closed-door session of Parliament, Pakistan’s spy chief issued a rousing denunciation of the United States on Friday for its raid that killed Osama bin Laden and denied that Pakistan maintained any links with militant groups, according to lawmakers. Rather, the spy chief, Lt. Gen. Ahmed Shuja Pasha, blamed an intelligence failure for the presence of Bin Laden in the city of Abbottabad, where a top military...
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