US personnel depart from Shamsi Airbase

The airbase is central to drone activity as they take off and refuel for operations against militants. PHOTO: EPA/FILE

ISLAMABAD: A senior Pakistani intelligence official told CNN on Friday that United States military personnel have left  Shamsi Airbase in Pakistan’s Balochistan Province.

The airbase is central to drone activity as they take off and refuel for operations against militants, according to CNN.

The development comes amid a public furor over drone attacks which have killed a large number of civilians in the past. A suspected U.S. drone strike in Pakistan tribal region killed 25 people on Friday and on March 17 attack, 44 people out of which were mostly civilians in a another strike.

A US military official who did not want to be identified told CNN, “There are no US forces at Shamsi Air Base in Balochistan.” He did not respond at the time or writing to queries as to whether US personnel had been based there in the past.

The departure of American personnel, if confirmed, would be significant because the development has emerged at a time of increased strain between Islamabad and Washington, sparked by the continuing drone attacks and by Raymond Davis affair, in which a CIA contractor shot dead two Pakistanis in Lahore.