Nine drone strikes were recorded in October, the most strikes in a month since October 2011, according to the Bureau of Investigative Journalism.
The United States halted drone strikes in Pakistan for the first six months of 2014 while the government engaged in ultimately fruitless peace talks with the Taliban insurgency.
But the strikes restarted on June 11, just four days before the military launched a full-scale offensive against militants in North Waziristan agency.
Four strikes in October hit Shawal where many of the militants who fled the offensive are believed to be hiding in the thickly forested, mountainous area.
In early hours of October 7, drones had fired two missiles at a compound at Kund Ghar area of Shawal and killed at least six while injuring nine persons. In the same area, US drone had targeted another compound of suspected militants at afternoon and eliminated at least eight more lives on the spot.
Five suspected militants were killed in a strike in Shawal on October 6, and another five killed in a strike in the same area on October 5.
Death tolls from drone strikes are often disputed since the area is off limits to independent journalists and observers. The Taliban also frequently seal off the sites of attacks.
Drones have also hit targets in Datta Khel, North Waziristan, striking three times in four days. Datta Khel has been the target of eight US drone strikes this year and numerous Pakistani air strikes.
Two US predator strikes on October 11 killed at least eight suspected militants — including a senior member of al Qaeda’s South Asia franchise and a key Taliban commander in the Khyber and North Waziristan tribal regions.
There have now been more than 400 drone strikes since June 2004 in the country leading to a total of 2,383 to 3,858 reported killed.
Despite the intensity of the attacks, on average 3.2 people died per strike -- a relatively low monthly casualty rate in the campaign ongoing since June 2004.
Militants killed
Seven of the 29 to 49 people killed in drone strikes in Pakistan in October have been named in media reports as alleged militants.
A purported spokesperson for the newly established al Qaeda franchise for the Indian Subcontinent, said that a senior member of his group, Sheikh Imran Ali Siddiqi, aka Haji Shaikh Waliullah, was killed in a strike in Khyber on October 11.
In the second attack in North Waziristan on the same day, a political administration official claimed that four militants, including a key TTP commander, Muhammad Mustafa, were killed in the attack.
Five victims were named in an October 30 strike in South Waziristan, including an important commander of the feared Haqqani network.
“At least seven militants were killed in the drone strike,” an intelligence official based in Wana told AFP, adding that the dead included four foreigners and a top Haqqani commander.
“Abdullah Haqqani (the commander) was responsible for sending suicide bombers to Afghanistan,” the official said.
Also killed were four people identified as Arabs by unnamed sources in media reports. The names given were: Adil, a Yemeni; Abu Dawooduddin, from Sudan; and Umar and Amadi, from Saudi Arabia.
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@Salim Jaffar:
Ignoring terrorism is one of the main reasons why Islamabad has lost control of half of Pakistan ... drones may not be an ideal solution but Pakistan has allowed terrorist sanctuary and prevented USA from confronting those terrorist with boots on the ground (USA suggest joint operation against these terrorist a decade ago). The Americans have made it clear that killing these terrorist in Pakistan is preferable to ignoring them ... sounds reasonable to me.
As long as the vengeance is played out inside pakistan. Drones have served the dual purpose of wiping out pakistani assets and disrupting the terrorist support inside pakistan.
When will USA understand that drones will not solve terrorism. They will only increase it, fuel it, inflame it. Adeerus Ghayan's novel Bullets and Train is very accurate in this sense. It truly depicts the factor of vengeance that the drones infuse into the victims of these attacks. It is only a matter of time when one of these victims carries out a heinous crime in the name of vengeance. We need to start treating these people as humans, start educating them, giving them jobs and then only then can we expect to see a reduction in terrorism.
Well, we deserve this. After all, the only political leader who raised his voice in Pakistan was Imran Khan but we're too busy protecting a scam democracy to raise our voices as well. Nawaz the lion!! Nawaz is the only face of democracy after all. He isn't a useless puppet oh no!