U.S. departs Pakistan base, source says CNN(US left Shamsi Airbase)

[emoriphious]

STORY HIGHLIGHTS
U.S. military personnel depart a Pakistan base, a Pakistani official says
The location is a hub of drone activity, another official says
The news comes amid public furor over civilians killed in drone strikes
Islamabad, Pakistan (CNN) -- U.S. military personnel have left a southern base in Pakistan said to be a key hub for American drone operations in the country's northwestern tribal areas, a senior Pakistani intelligence official told CNN on Friday.

Drones are said to take off and get refueled for operations against Islamic militants from the Shamsi Air Base in Pakistan's Balochistan province.
News of a possible U.S. departure 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. Another one on March 17 killed 44, mostly civilians.
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Pakistan
Drone Attacks
Another senior Pakistani intelligence official, who did not want to be identified discussing a sensitive issue, confirmed Americans had been using the base as a center of operations for launching drone strikes. He was not able to confirm if the Americans had left.
The first official said that American personnel were no longer operating out of the base, but he could not say whether they had left voluntarily or at the request of the Pakistani government.
The operation of the base -- which the U.S. government has not publicly acknowledged -- has always been presumed to have occurred with tacit Pakistani military consent.
It was not clear from the Pakistani officials when the presence there began or when it ended.
A U.S. military official who did not want to be identified told CNN: "There are no U.S. forces at Shamsi Air Base in Balochistan." He did not respond at the time or in writing to queries as to whether U.S. personnel had been based there in the past.
The departure of American personnel -- if confirmed -- would be significant because of increasing strain between Islamabad and Washington sparked by the drone attacks and the Raymond Davis affair in which a CIA contractor fatally shot two Pakistani men in a Lahore neighborhood.
It has always been unclear how many drone bases the United States operates in or near Pakistan. But Friday's attack in North Waziristan that killed 25 people would indicate the United States maintains the capability to strike tribal areas with drones.
Carl Forsberg, research analyst at the Institute for the Study of War think tank, said he doesn't think such a move would affect the effort using drones to target the Haqqani Network and other militant groups holed up in the tribal region.
Many strikes have been conducted from closer bases, such as those across the Pakistani border in eastern Afghan provinces. He said Pakistanis could be making such a move to appease a populace angry at the United States.
The southern air base, he said, doesn't appear to be integral to the tribal area fight and is probably a supporting base.
"It's not like the Pakistanis shut down the program," he said. "It's possible they want to do this as a means of pre-empting drone strikes in Balochistan," where there is a Taliban presence.
"The United States has an interest in going after the Taliban in Balochistan," he said, and in an ideal world the United States would like to target Taliban sanctuaries in that region with drones.
Also, he said, it's possible the Pakistanis are using pressure on the United States to offset any U.S. pressure on them.
He said it's no coincidence that the development emerged after Adm. Mike Mullen, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, visited Islamabad.
In an interview that aired Wednesday on Pakistan's Geo TV, Mullen spoke forcefully about the Haqqani Network, saying it "specifically facilitates and supports the Taliban who move in Afghanistan, and they're killing Americans."
"I can't accept that and I will do everything I possibly can to prevent that specifically," he said.
Mullen said Pakistan's Inter-Services Intelligence "has a longstanding relationship with the Haqqani Network. That doesn't mean everybody in the ISI, but it's there."
"I also have an understanding that the ISI and the (Pakistani military) exist to protect their own citizens, and there's a way they have done that for a long period of time," Mullen said. "I believe that over time, that's got to change."
A senior Pakistani intelligence official responded by saying, "We do have a relationship: that of an adversary."
"We have made our resolve very clear that (the Haqqani Network) is an enemy we need to fight together," said the official, who did not want to be identified discussing intelligence matters.
The Pakistani intelligence official told CNN that "we have our hands full" fighting other Islamist militant groups along the border with Afghanistan, notably those under the umbrella of the Lashkar-e-Tayyiba, "and once we are through with them we can turn on the other (the Haqqanis). We do not have the capacity to undertake simultaneous operations."
The official said the "onus of providing proof of this" relationship was on the Americans and it was not up to the ISI "to start providing clarification."
Asked if offense was taken from Mullen's remarks, the intelligence official said: "Not personally, no."
In Friday's attack, a drone fired five missiles on a hideout in Mir Ali of North Waziristan, one of the seven districts of Pakistan's volatile tribal region bordering Afghanistan, two intelligence officials said.
The officials said the militants, who were staying in the hideout, were planning to move into Afghanistan for an attack against coalition forces.
The militants were local Taliban members from Orakzai agency, another district of Pakistan's tribal region, who were trained for war, the officials said. The intelligence officials asked not to be named because they were not authorized to speak to the media.
But the attack also killed at least three women when one of the missiles hit a house next to the targeted compound, officials said. The Pakistani intelligence source identified the slain civilians as five women and three children.
Friday's drone strike was the 20th this year, compared with 111 in all of 2010, based on a CNN tally.
The strike comes two days after Pakistan issued a strongly worded statement condemning deadly suspected U.S. drone strikes in the country's tribal region.
"Drone attacks have become a core irritant in the counterterror campaign," a statement from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs said Wednesday. "We have repeatedly said that such attacks are counterproductive and only contribute to strengthen the hands of the terrorists."
U.S. departs Pakistan base, source says - CNN.com

 

[Mutee]

Very good news if true

 

[emoriphious]

ISLAMABAD: Pakistan has stopped all US operations from the Shamsi Air Base in Balochistan, an airport which was given to American forces for use after 9/11 and drone attacks were launched from the base on targets in the tribal areas, military sources have confirmed. It was also used extensively in 2001 when thousands of US sorties took off to bomb Afghanistan a few weeks after the 9/11 attack in New York.
The US has been using the Shamsi Air Base in Balochistan province to station unmanned Predator drones that have been used to attack terrorist targets inside Pakistan’s tribal areas. Shamsi airfield, also called Bandari, is a small airfield and air station located about 200 miles southwest of Quetta near the town of Washki.

As the relations between Islamabad and Washington have strained due to latter’s mounting interference and repeated breach of Pakistan’s sovereignty, the US Embassy spokesman, Alberto Rodriguez, confirmed that there are no US forces at the Shamsi Air Base in Balochistan.

Pakistan Air Force (PAF) spokesperson, when approached about his version on the vacation of US forces and the deadly drones from Shamsi airfield, explained that the airfield does not belong to the PAF while the Pakistan Army sources confirmed that the airfield was free from the American forces.

No one was prepared to share with The News the dates or the time period when the Shamsi airfield was vacated by the Americans although the sources insist that it is a recent development.

Almost a year back, Defence Minister Ahmad Mukhtar spoke on the topic of the Shamsi Air Base confirming that it was being used by American forces for logistical purposes but, he added, the government was not satisfied with payments for the use of the facility.

Mukhtar, however, did not go into the nature of airfield’s use by the American forces. Prior to Shamsi, Pakistan had also got vacated from the US forces the Jacobabad Air Base and Pasni, which were used for its operations in Afghanistan.
Shamsi Air Base taken back from CIA, US forces

 

[FreekiN]

"innocent muslims died in drone attacks"

So it wouldnt really matter if a Pakistani Christian or etc died right?

Yeah, screw you.

 

[Musafar]

I hope this gives those pakistanis that were in denial that this base ever existed a reality check. It also validates that our military have been in collusion and are duplicitous with this CIA activity. They have been caught sleeping as they thought the CIA were working alongside them but as the Raymond Davis affair highlighted that they were actually double crossing and spying on EVERYTHING.

Lastly who will compensate hundreds of civilians killed by these murdering cowards?

 

[pmukherjee]

@ 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 is the best civilian to terrorist killed ratio achieved any where in the world. No COIN operation anywhere in the world can claim better collateral figures.