Like most Pakistanis I am against drone’s attacks. These being an insult to Pakistan’s’ sovereignty. However I find it amazing that Taliban lovers of this forum believe that CIA is wasting missiles costing millions of dollars on hunting down totally innocent women and children!
No doubt many innocents are killed in the process but the target is always the militants. This attack happened in Afghan territory so we have no way knowing for sure who was the target. However Afghan sources claim that these were militants running away to hide in safe havens in Pakistan.
Here is the report as published in the News International; believe what you will.
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Five killed as drone hits boat near Pak-Afghan border
Ashrafuddin PirzadaSunday, December 15, 2013 From Print Edition
LANDIKOTAL: At least five persons, including a resident of Loey Shalman, were killed and two others injured when a CIA-operated drone fired two missiles on a boat in the Kabul river in the Mach Megai area near the Pak-Afghan border on Saturday.
The place where the drone attack was carried out is located at a distance of one kilometre from the Loey Shalman area of Landikotal tehsil in Khyber Agency.
Afghan officials said militants were targeted in the attack.
Officials in Landikotal told reporters that the boat with people was on its way to Loey Shalman from Afghanistan when the drone targeted it in Mach Megai in Kabul river in Afghanistan, one kilometre from the Durand Line.
Reports said that seven passengers were travelling in the boat, and five of them were killed and two sustained injuries in the attack.
Soon after the attack, locals from Pakistan and Afghanistan reached the site and started rescue work.
A resident of Loey Shalman, whose body was retrieved from the river, was identified as Gul Rang. The locals and officials said that he was returning home from Afghanistan.
However, Afghan officials in Torkham told this scribe by phone that seven militants were killed and two injured in the drone strike. They said the militants were going to Pakistan from Afghanistan.
It is worth mentioning that Loey Shalman is a far-flung border area of Landikotal located on the bank of the Kabul river, which shares a border with Afghanistan’s Nangarhar province.
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Five killed as drone hits boat near Pak-Afghan border - thenews.com.pk
