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Uzbeks main victims of drone attacks
A security official has claimed that majority of the militants killed in the US drone attacks in the tribal region during the past one year were Uzbeks, but the ISPR still says drone attacks have done more harm than good to Pakistan.The official told The News on Thursday: "During the past one year, majority of the militants killed in missile strikes by US unmanned aerial vehicles were Uzbek nationals, who are often referred to as foreign militants in the media." He was talking to The News via telephone from the troubled tribal region. "This is the reason that no protest against their killing has been witnessed in the area wherever they are killed," the official opined, requesting anonymity. According to the official, it is also because of the nationality of the killed militants that security forces seldom faced any retaliatory attack. He said the local population has no sympathy with the Uzbek nationals as compared to the local militants, whose death in drone attacks not only triggers protests locally but also security forces face retaliatory attacks by militants. When approached by The News for comments, the Inter Services Public Relations director-general did not elaborate and only said: "Drone attacks harm more than they help." According to the data compiled by the Pakistani authorities, 60 US drone strikes inside Pakistan between January 14, 2006 and April 8 this year killed 701 persons, including 14 wanted al-Qaeda militants. Of these attacks, only 10 were able to hit their actual targets as besides 14 wanted persons, 687 innocent Pakistani civilians were killed, showing the success ratio of not more than 6 per cent. Two strikes in 2006 had killed 98 civilians while three attacks in 2007 had slain 66 Pakistanis. Interestingly, only 10 out of 50 drone attacks between January 29, 2008 and April 8 this year hit their targets and killed 14 wanted al-Qaeda operatives. Posted by: Fred 2009-09-20 |
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