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U.S. departs Pakistan base
A senior Pakistani intelligence official told CNN Friday that U.S. military personnel have left a southern base said to be a key hub for American drone operations in the country's northwestern tribal areas.
The development comes amid a public furor over American drone attacks, which have killed civilians. A suspected U.S. drone strike Friday in the Pakistani tribal region killed 25 people, including eight civilians and 17 militants, a Pakistani intelligence source said. This came after another strike on March 17 killed 44 people, most of them civilians. Yet a U.S. official disputed the Pakistani contention that civilians died in Friday's drone strike. "There is no evidence to support that claim whatsoever," the U.S. official said. Another senior Pakistani intelligence official, who did not want to be identified discussing a sensitive issue, confirmed that the Americans had been using the base as a center of operations for launching drone strikes. He was not able to confirm the Americans had left. While the first official was able to confirm that American personnel were no longer operating out of the base, he could not say whether they had left voluntarily or at the request of the Pakistani government. Posted by: tipper 2011-04-23 |
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