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Fresh US drone attacks kill 5 in Pakistan
 Fresh attacks by American unmanned aerial vehicles (UAV) on Sunday killed five people in Pakistan's North Waziristan. North Waziristan has witnessed a growing number of US missile raids. Drone attacks on Thursday and Friday left some seven people dead in the northwestern area. The attacks, carried out by the US Central Intelligence Agency in cooperation with the Pentagon, reportedly killed more than 700 civilians in Pakistan in 2009. Islamabad says it is involved in major offensives against militants in the northwestern parts of the country as the large-scale presence of the US military in Afghanistan has sent the militants across the border into Pakistan. Meanwhile, the drone raids have turned the spotlight on Washington which is accused of ignoring legal and moral principles with the deadly operations on a sovereign soil. In Washington, the attacks are hailed as a 'surgical' counterinsurgency tool. Pakistani Foreign Minister Shah Mahmoud Qureshi recently condemned the attacks as "counterproductive and unhelpful." The attacks, believed to be initiated from airbases located inside Pakistan's territory, have played a strong role in the growing anti-American sentiment in Pakistan. More detail, from Dawn... Five people, three of them Arabs, were killed when a drone fired two missiles on a house in Mosaki village of North Waziristan on Sunday night, official sources said. According to local people, the unmanned aircraft attacked the residential compound of Jehan Roze in Mosaki village of Mirali tehsil, destroying its guesthouse. An official said that three Arabs were among the dead, besides Jehan Rozes son Sadiq Noor and grandson Wajid. Two other persons are said to have been injured. However, names and nationalities of the Arabs could not be ascertained. Sadiq Noor was a teacher in a government school and he was in contact with foreign militants, officials said. Local people reported seeing four planes hovering over the area when the missiles hit the house. US drones have carried out two attacks in the area since Friday. AFP adds: "There may have been an important figure hiding in the house," a security official in Miramshah said. "Five militants have been killed ... Two are local and three are foreigners. One among the foreigners is an Arab," the security official said. Posted by: Fred 2010-01-04 |
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