US drones kill 18 in North Waziristan

At least 18 people were killed and four others injured in two US drone strikes in Datta Khel area of North Waziristan.

At least 18 people were killed and four others injured in two US drone strikes in Datta Khel area of the North Waziristan Agency on Saturday.

Sources in the tribal administration told The Express Tribune that the first attack occurred at around 10 am in the Asar village, when a US drone fired four missiles at a house. The attack left 10 people dead and injured four others. The Express Tribune has learnt that the militants belonged to Hafiz Gul Bahadar group. The strike occurred around 40 kilometres west of the agency’s headquarters Miramshah in Datta Khel tehsil, which seems to have been the focus of drone attacks during the current month.

The second attack came at around 1:30 pm about 10 kilometres away from the site of the earlier attack. A US drone fired four missiles, which killed eight people in the attack that targeted a vehicle and a house in Tormar village, sources said.

The Long War Journal (LWJ) reported that no senior Taliban or al Qaeda leaders were killed in either of the attacks.

Datta Khel, which is regarded as stronghold of al Qaeda-linked Haqqani network, has been an epicentre of the strikes carried out during this year. The US has conducted 20 airstrikes in the Datta Khel region this year, or 26 per cent of its current total of 68 airstrikes in Pakistan in 2010, theJournal reports.

Datta Khel is administered by Hafiz Gul Bahadar, the Taliban commander for North Waziristan. Despite the fact that Bahadar and the Haqqani Network provide shelter to al Qaeda and other South and Central Asian terror groups, the government and military refuse to take action in North Waziristan, LWJ said. Bahadar and the Haqqanis are viewed as “good Taliban” because they do not attack the Pakistani state.

In September alone, at least 21 US drone strikes have killed at least 120 people, the highest monthly toll for the attacks, officials said.

The recent surge in drone attacks is being witnessed in the wake of a major terror plot aimed to target major European cities, which is said to have been prepared in tribal areas of Pakistan.

Earlier this year, United Nations (UN) Special Rapporteur on extrajudicial executions Philip Alston, in a report submitted to Human Rights Council, said that the drone attacks pose a rapidly growing challenge to the international rule of law.

The report termed the US as the “most prolific user of targeted killings” for its use of drone attacks in Pakistani tribal areas. The grounds which the US uses for these attacks, if invoked by other states would create a chaos, it said.

Published in The Express Tribune October 3rd, 2010.