Daily brief: U.S. drone strike reportedly kills 26 in NW Pakistan

By Katherine TIedemann, April 22, 2011 Friday, April 22, 2011 - 8:00 AM Share

No smiling photo op

As many as 26 people, including five women and children, were reportedly killed earlier today in a suspected U.S. drone strike targeting a compound used by local militant commander Hafiz Gul Bahadur in the Spinwam area of North Waziristan (Reuters, AP, WSJ, CNN, BBC, Geo). Adm. Mike Mullen, the chairman of the joint chiefs, reportedly told Pakistani Army head Gen. Ashfaq Parvez Kayani during his visit to Pakistan this week that the drone strikes would continue until the Pakistani military targets the Haqqani network in North Waziristan (ET). Pamela Constable points out that "this week, there was no smiling photo op" between Adm. Mullen and Gen. Kayani, indicating the current tense relationship between the U.S. and Pakistan (Post).

In a step toward addressing Pakistan's long-standing request for drone technology, the U.S. military said it will provide Pakistan with 85 Raven mini-drones, used for surveillance (Reuters). Pakistan is expected to receive some $3 billion in U.S. military aid in the next fiscal year. U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton met with Pakistan's foreign secretary, Salman Bashir, who is currently in D.C., and said the U.S. and Pakistan should "work and succeed together" (ET).

The Pakistani Army claimed that the Suran area of Mohmand agency in northwest Pakistan, which has seen military operations lately, has been cleared of militants, and Gen. Kayani visited troops in the agency today to launch the second phase of operations there (Dawn, ET). In Lower Dir, hundreds of militants attacked a security checkpoint along the Afghan border, killing at least 14 Pakistani security personnel today (ET). Pakistan gunships killed six militants in Lower Kurram yesterday (ET). And in Karachi, up to 19 people were killed in an explosion in an illegal gambling den last night, and police are investigating whether the attack was the result of "some internal rivalry" or terrorism (The News, AJE, AFP, Dawn, Reuters, ET, BBC, DT).

A turning point

At a press conference yesterday at the Pentagon, defense secretary Robert Gates told reporters, "It's possible that, by the end of this year, we will have turned a corner" in Afghanistan, calling 2011 a "critical year" (Reuters, AFP). A roadside bomb in Spin Boldak in Kandahar killed five Afghan policemen earlier this morning, and militants attacked a convoy of NATO tankers in the northern province of Baghlan, destroying several vehicles (AP, Pajhwok). A nephew of Hezb-i-Islami leader, Gulbuddin Hekmatyar, was reportedly killed by a NATO airstrike in Maidan Wardak (Pajhwok).

The Journal reports on the U.S.'s escalation of airdropping supplies to troops in isolated areas of Afghanistan, which has doubled annually since 2006, to "avoid exposing ground convoys to ambushes and roadside bombs" (WSJ). Some 60 million pounds of supplies were dropped last year.

And we need a vacation tonight

A group of Marines stationed in Afghanistan has produced a version of pop star Britney Spears' single "Hold it against me," featuring dance choreography and lip syncing (LAT). The group has also offered covers of Miley Cyrus and Sean Kingston.

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MORTIMUS

9:15 PM ET

April 22, 2011

UAVs: part of the political playbook, and not much else

I love how the agency is just so damn proud of their little model aeroplanes; I guess since it's the first tactical operation that they've managed to not f*ck up royally, they consider the drone program their crown jewel; because every other covert action has mostly amounted to epic failureage (Iran, Castro's 638 assassination attempts, Cold War bungles, 9/11, and so and so forth). So of course the CIA—and consequently, the administration, which has control over its operations—is going to tout the drone program as the only counter-terrorist tactic in the tool kit that's worth a damn. But in big-picture, strategic terms, the drone strikes are about as useful as tits on a nun. Sure, if your the president or the secdef, they sure are nice to point to when people ask you what your doing against terrorism, but those same drone strikes are going to make things geometrically more difficult for future presidents and future terrorism fighters. So, I see the drone program as a domestic political tool more than anything else, because it sure as shit isn't gonna make Americans safer in the long term.

and—we need a vacation tonight?

...send those ass-hats to the Korengal; the first song they can cover while they're there is Lionel Richie's "All Night Long (All Night)," as in their patrols are going to get ambushed and their COPs are gonna get pounded by angry, musky mountain men with small-arms fire, rockets, mortars, and RPGs all night long (all night).

http://youtu.be/QiLziusKW4s

TEJAS RAMAKRISHNAN

4:50 AM ET

April 23, 2011

I read this somewhere else as 22 killed, which is true..?

Drone attacks might be improving pilot safety records, but the fact is that a guy behind a computer is more likely to fire missile at a house than a pilot in a plane even if both doubts whether the intel is true...

The statement of facts is not uniform throughout the news world too. I am not particularly true which of the news i hear are true and which are baseless.

Above that, the news is often modified a million times before we here. I read that 22 people were killed in the strike in some site - US Drones | Leaky Wiki

MARTY MARTEL

5:30 PM ET

April 23, 2011

U. S. drones need to target all terrorist shelters in Pakistan

It is NOT enough that U. S. drones go after Haqqani’s HQN safely ensconced in North Waziristan. U. S. has to target its drones at Mullah Omar’s Afghan Taliban (QST) previously sheltered in Quetta , the provincial capital of Baluchistan and now moved to Karachi by Pakistani ISI. U. S. has to target Al Qaeda and LeT camps scattered and sheltered all over Pakistan as well. Targeting all the terrorist hideouts all over Pakistan is the only way that U. S. military is going to be able to reduce US/NATO casualties in Afghanistan.

As Adm. Mullen said to the foreign news media on 1/13/2011 about America’s primary ally in its fight against terrorism: “I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again, it [Pakistan] is the epicenter of terrorism in the world right now. It is absolutely critical that the safe havens in Pakistan get shut down. We cannot succeed in Afghanistan without that. It’s not just Haqqani Network anymore, or Al Qaeda or TTP (Tehrik-i-Taliban Pakistan), the Afghan Taliban, or LeT (Lashkar-e-Tayyeba), it’s all of them working together.”

Previous US ambassador Anne Patterson to Pakistan, wrote in a secret review in 2009 that ‘Pakistan's Army and ISI are covertly sponsoring four militant groups - Haqqani‘s HQN, Mullah Omar‘s QST, Al Qaeda and LeT - and will not abandon them for any amount of US money‘, as diplomatic cables released by WikiLeaks show.

Ambassador Patterson had NO reason to mislead her own State Department and U. S. government.

Since Pakistani Army and ISI are going to continue ‘covertly SPONSORING four militant groups - Haqqani‘s HQN, Mullah Omar‘s QST, Al Qaeda and LeT - and will not abandon them for any amount of US money‘, as ambassador Patterson wrote, targeting all of them wherever they are in Pakistan is the only way for U. S. to succeed in its Afghan mission.