close
Thursday March 28, 2024

US drone strikes surge in NWA despite military operation

ISLAMABAD: Saturday’s American unmanned spy plane’s strike in Shawal forested area of North Waziristan in which at least nine Afghan Taliban were reported to have been killed and numerous injured points to the sudden rise in frequency of hitting militants holed up in thick forested area where the Pakistan Air

By Ahmad Hassan
June 08, 2015
ISLAMABAD: Saturday’s American unmanned spy plane’s strike in Shawal forested area of North Waziristan in which at least nine Afghan Taliban were reported to have been killed and numerous injured points to the sudden rise in frequency of hitting militants holed up in thick forested area where the Pakistan Air Force has undertaken a number of air strikes but ground forces have not entered so far.
The report about Afghan Taliban’s killing in drone strike is not confirmed by any independent agency as the US has mentioned it whereas Pakistan has condemned it as usual ritual. The troops were scheduled to carry out ground offensive to flush out remnants of the militancy and clear the area most of which has already been achieved. Second aspect of this strike is that the drone strike has hit Afghan Taliban holed up in the area along with the TTP remnants. It was second drone strike within five days in the current month as first strike occurred on June 2. Two drone attacks were reported in May and one each was reported in March and April in the same vicinity.
It is however a matter of concern that the Afghan Taliban were hiding along with the TTP militants for those who are hoping that the year-long military Operation Zarb-e-Azb has cleared most of the NWA from the militant groups and either killed or forced them to flee the area and the return of the around one million internally displaced tribesmen has already begun. Another concern is for those who were thinking that use of US drones against TTP leaders would cease after its combat forces had left Afghanistan and its mission was over. An expert on Pakistan-Afghanistan situation said that such drone strikes tend to show that the US, despite having left the region militarily, was not ready to give up hitting militancy.
Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif and Afghan President Ashraf Ghani had agreed during the former’s Kabul sojourn last month that both countries will hit to eliminate wherever Afghan Taliban or TTP militants were found. Later, Pakistan’s premier intelligence agency ISI and Afghan intelligence agency had reached an understanding to cooperate in tracking down each other’s fugitive terrorists.
And in a surprise move, Dr Ghani wrote to the PM and other high ups in Islamabad last week to nab and take into custody all the Afghan Taliban and Haqqani group leaders that were stationed or operating from Pakistan’s soil. A response to that letter from Pakistan side has not been given so far. However, Islamabad’s position is clear that while it seeks Afghan intelligence and security forces cooperation in nabbing TTP chief Mullah Fazlullah, no stone would be left unturned if any Afghan Taliban leader was found in Pakistan. It has generally been perceived that the US drones fire missile only on intelligence reports which come through both CIA and Pakistani security agencies but the government of Pakistan has always opposed these strikes describing them as counterproductive. The drone strikes had been reported to have cut to half between December last year to March this year but the campaign seems to have been resumed with added ferocity.