Sources say death toll may rise.
Rescue services have left for the site, while sources say that the death toll may rise.
The White House on Tuesday defended drone strikes against al Qaeda suspects as legal, ethical and wise and insisted they complied with US law and the Constitution, even if they targeted Americans.
The White House defended President Barack Obama’s power to wage drone war after a Justice Department memo argued that Americans high up in al Qaeda could be lawfully killed, even if intelligence fails to show them plotting an attack.
"We conduct those strikes because they are necessary to mitigate ongoing actual threats, to stop plots, to prevent future attacks and, again, save American lives," said White House spokesman Jay Carney.
"These strikes are legal, they are ethical, and they are wise."
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@Hari Om: Most Pakistanis support drone strikes though they may take a different stance publicly. It is like Koran and Hadith. Koran may say one thing but many will contradict it by quoting some Hadith. As I understand, (correct me if I am wrong) Koran teaches principles but Hadith specifies the allowed practices and also gives historic examples. Like Koran says that muslims should treat followers of other religions the same as the followers of Islam but there are those who claim that some Hadith requires muslims to keep away from non-muslims, collect Jazya. Incidentally, I have seen reports that non-muslims pay Jazya in some parts of Pakistan, even today.
As a non-Pakistani I am completely perplexed as to why there seems to have not been a single attempt by the military of Pakistan to thwart a drone attack of which there have now been some 200 plus attacks.
It certainly is not because the taxpayers of Pakistan have not been generous in providing the military hardware necessary to thwart such attacks. Indeed the Pakistani taxpayer has provided vast amounts of money in obtaining for their military Saab 2000 Erieye and ZDK-03 AEW&C’s, F-16 fighters, Spada 2000 and RBS-70 Bolide SAM’s, AMRAAM AAM’s, AN/TPS 77 Radars etc, all equipment eminently suitable for the purpose of thwarting drone attacks. Despite this, I have yet to come across a single reference of an attempt by the Pakistani military to deploy this equipment to thwart attacks by drones, much less an actual attempt to attack a drone violating Pakistani territory.
So what is it that is stopping the Pakistani Military in taking measures to thwart drone attacks?
@Aarvey,india: Very true, a murder of a human is like murder of the whole humanity.
So any atrocity, murder whether in Pakistan, whether in Kashmir in Palestine in India or in any part of the world is equally condemnable.
Majority of the Pakistanis mourned the tragic death of Salman Taseer, prayed for the health of Malala and detest the elements behind these tragedies. In the same way we strongly detest the drone attacks, as these are killing our children, killing our youth.
@Adnan: Good logic. Can you say he same for mumtaz quadri the murderer of Salman taseer, or the barbarians who tried to kill Malala?
Drones are doing what Pakistan Army supposed to do.
The American's have made it clear - they will not allow terrorist to find sanctuary in third World countries that may lack the political will or military might to eliminate these thugs. The American's have decided that protecting American citizens trumps political correctness - kudos to them.
3 people killed in a drone strike and the news gets a tiny place at the bottom of the webpage!!
BCCI behind this.
The US of A has found the perfect language to negotiate with the terrorist thugs. It is drones and hellfire.
“These strikes are legal, they are ethical, and they are wise.”
What law allows you to kill people without trial, what ethic teach you to strike when there is high risk that innocent people will be killed, and how can they be wise as they will only increase hate in the region. For us
“These strikes are illicit, they are immoral, and they are injudicious.”
trying to derail talks again?