iam not greek
BANNED
- Joined
- Nov 13, 2012
- Messages
- 555
- Reaction score
- 3
- Country
- Location
PESHAWAR, Pakistan — Ending a five-month hiatus, the Central Intelligence Agency resumed its drone campaign in Pakistan with missile strikes on Wednesday and Thursday that killed at least 14 people in the tribal district of North Waziristan, Pakistani officials said.
The second strike, on Thursday, killed 10 militants who officials said belonged to the feared Haqqani militant network. It came just hours after the first strike late Wednesday that killed four others, with both attacks aiming at a compound where a truck carrying explosives was located.
“Six missiles were fired in the second strike, hitting the same compound and an explosives-laden truck,” a senior security official said of the attack, which took place four miles north of Miram Shah, the main town in North Waziristan.
It was uncertain initially who had been killed in the strike. But a majority of the victims, by several accounts, were Uzbek fighters from the Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan — a Taliban-allied jihadi group that only hours earlier had boasted of its role in Sunday’s audacious assault on the Karachi airport, which led to at least 36 deaths, including the 10 attackers.
Speaking from the tribal belt, another Pakistani officialreported that the initial strike Wednesday resulted in five deaths — three Uzbeks and two members of the Haqqani network, a Taliban-allied faction that regularly attacks American and Afghan forces in Afghanistan and that until last month held the American soldier Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl hostage. Both Pakistani officials spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss intelligence details publicly. A C.I.A. official would not comment on the strike in Pakistan.
A resident of Miram Shah said by telephone that the force of Wednesday’s attack rattled windows in the town. It was the first known C.I.A. drone strike inside Pakistan since Dec. 25, when missiles struck another compound near Miram Shah and killed at least three people.
Although the C.I.A. has never explained the subsequent pause, many Pakistani analysts believe it was to allow the Pakistani government a chance to negotiate with the Taliban. However, those talks have fallen apart amid a new wave of militant attacks and government airstrikes.
Another factor may also be involved. On Sunday, James N. Mattis, the former leader of the United States Central Command, said on CNN that concern about Sergeant Bergdahl’s safety had weighed on any potential military strikes against the Haqqanis. That concern is now gone, he said, adding, “There’s also a freedom to operate against them that perhaps we didn’t fully enjoy.”
Within Pakistan, the country’s military and civilian leaders, prompted by public outrage over the Karachi assault, are contemplating a new offensive against the Taliban.
In the past week, the Pakistani military has conducted airstrikes against what it believes to be militant targets in North Waziristan, particularly in neighborhoods dominated by ethnic Uighur and Uzbek militants.
China, which is a significant economic and strategic ally for Pakistan, has pressured the government to crack down on the Uighurs, who are linked to an Islamist insurgency in the Xinjiang region of western China.
The Uzbek militants, who fled to Pakistan after 2001, have become an integral part of the Taliban insurgency that, despite efforts to talk peace with the government in recent months, has continued to carry out bombings across the country.
http://www.nytimes.com/2014/06/13/world/asia/pakistan.html?_r=0
The second strike, on Thursday, killed 10 militants who officials said belonged to the feared Haqqani militant network. It came just hours after the first strike late Wednesday that killed four others, with both attacks aiming at a compound where a truck carrying explosives was located.
“Six missiles were fired in the second strike, hitting the same compound and an explosives-laden truck,” a senior security official said of the attack, which took place four miles north of Miram Shah, the main town in North Waziristan.
It was uncertain initially who had been killed in the strike. But a majority of the victims, by several accounts, were Uzbek fighters from the Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan — a Taliban-allied jihadi group that only hours earlier had boasted of its role in Sunday’s audacious assault on the Karachi airport, which led to at least 36 deaths, including the 10 attackers.
Speaking from the tribal belt, another Pakistani officialreported that the initial strike Wednesday resulted in five deaths — three Uzbeks and two members of the Haqqani network, a Taliban-allied faction that regularly attacks American and Afghan forces in Afghanistan and that until last month held the American soldier Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl hostage. Both Pakistani officials spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss intelligence details publicly. A C.I.A. official would not comment on the strike in Pakistan.
A resident of Miram Shah said by telephone that the force of Wednesday’s attack rattled windows in the town. It was the first known C.I.A. drone strike inside Pakistan since Dec. 25, when missiles struck another compound near Miram Shah and killed at least three people.
Although the C.I.A. has never explained the subsequent pause, many Pakistani analysts believe it was to allow the Pakistani government a chance to negotiate with the Taliban. However, those talks have fallen apart amid a new wave of militant attacks and government airstrikes.
Another factor may also be involved. On Sunday, James N. Mattis, the former leader of the United States Central Command, said on CNN that concern about Sergeant Bergdahl’s safety had weighed on any potential military strikes against the Haqqanis. That concern is now gone, he said, adding, “There’s also a freedom to operate against them that perhaps we didn’t fully enjoy.”
Within Pakistan, the country’s military and civilian leaders, prompted by public outrage over the Karachi assault, are contemplating a new offensive against the Taliban.
In the past week, the Pakistani military has conducted airstrikes against what it believes to be militant targets in North Waziristan, particularly in neighborhoods dominated by ethnic Uighur and Uzbek militants.
China, which is a significant economic and strategic ally for Pakistan, has pressured the government to crack down on the Uighurs, who are linked to an Islamist insurgency in the Xinjiang region of western China.
The Uzbek militants, who fled to Pakistan after 2001, have become an integral part of the Taliban insurgency that, despite efforts to talk peace with the government in recent months, has continued to carry out bombings across the country.
http://www.nytimes.com/2014/06/13/world/asia/pakistan.html?_r=0
