LAHORE: Of the 45 predator strikes carried out by the American drones in the tribal areas of Pakistan in the 12 months of 2009, only five were able to hit their actual targets, killing five key al-Qaeda and Taliban leaders, but at the cost of around 700 innocent civilian lives.
According to the figures compiled by the Pakistani authorities, the Afghanistan-based US drones killed 720 people in 45 predator attacks targeting the Pakistani tribal areas between January 1 and December 31, 2009. And for each al-Qaeda and Taliban terrorist killed by the American drones, 140 civilian Pakistanis also had to die. Over 90 per cent of those killed in the deadly missile strikes were innocent civilians. The success percentage for the drone hits during 2009 comes to hardly 11 percent. On average, 58 civilians were killed in these attacks every month, 12 persons every week and almost two people every day. Most of these hits were conducted on the basis of human intelligence, reportedly provided by the Pakistani and Afghan tribesmen, who are spying for the US-led Allied Forces in Afghanistan.
Of the five successful predator attacks carried out in 2009, the first one came on January 1st, which reportedly killed two senior al-Qaeda leaders – Usama al-Kini and Sheikh Ahmed Salim Swedan, both wanted by the American Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI). Kini was the chief operational commander of al-Qaeda in Pakistan and had replaced Abu Faraj Al Libi after his arrest in 2004. The second successful drone attack was conducted on August 5 in South Waziristan which killed the Most Wanted fugitive chief of the Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) commander Baitullah Mehsud along with his wife. The US State Department had announced a $5 million head money for information leading to Baitullah, making him the only Pakistani fugitive with a head-money separately announced by Islamabad and Washington.
The third successful US drone attack was conducted on August 27, targeting the Tapar Ghai area in the Kanigram district of the South Waziristan agency, killing Tahir Yuldash, the fugitive chief of the Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan, who was also the ideological mentor of Baitullah Mehsud. Tahir reportedly lost a leg and arm in the drone strike and eventually succumbed to his injuries the next day. On September 8, Commander Ilyas Kashmiri, the fugitive chief of al-Qaeda linked Harkatul Jehadul Islami (Azad Kashmir chapter) was reportedly killed in a drone attack in North Waziristan. However, Kashmiri re-surfaced in the first week of October, giving an interview and belying the American claims that he was still alive.
The fourth successful drone attack was carried out on October 21 in the Spalaga area of North Waziristan, being controlled by Pakistani Taliban leader Hafiz Gul Bahadur. One of those killed was Abu Ayyub al-Masri, an explosives expert for al-Qaeda and a ‘Tier 1’ target of the FBI. The fifth and the last successful drone assault was conducted on December 8 which killed three militants riding a car near Miramshah area in North Waziristan. The dead ones reportedly included a senior al-Qaeda leader, Saleh al-Somali, from Somalia.
The remaining 40 attacks went wrong due to faulty intelligence information, thus killing hundreds of innocent civilians, including women and children. However, the high ups of the Obama administration claim that not all the 40 attacks went wrong and some of these did kill a few low ranking Taliban leaders. Of the 45 US drone attacks, two were carried out in January 2009 which killed 36 people, two more hits in February killed 72, March experienced five predator assaults killing 52 people, five more attacks killed 44 people in April, 53 people lost their lives in three hits carried out in May, a record number of 105 people were killed in four attacks conducted in June, 103 more lost their lives in four attacks in July, four more predator attacks left 58 people dead in August, 46 people lost their lives in September in four attacks, 42 more people were killed in three hits in October, 44 lost their lives in three more attacks in November while 65 people were killed in the six US drone strikes during December 2009.
The US has been using unmanned drones to bomb targets in Pakistan for almost four years now. The Bush administration had described these attacks as a part of the war on terror which were meant to defeat the Taliban and al-Qaeda militants who have found a safe haven in the Pakistani tribal areas. These attacks are carried out by unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs), actually being operated by the American CIA. But the drone hits and the subsequent loss of civilian lives have intensified since President Obama took oath of his office in January 2009. This is despite the fact that the Americans themselves have acknowledged the grave loss of civilian lives in these assaults. In a meeting of the American Congress in the first week of May 2009, former senior counterinsurgency advisor to US Army David Kilcullen, advised the Obama government to call off the drone attacks in Pakistan, saying: “We have been able to kill only 14 senior al-Qaeda leaders since 2006 by using drone strikes. And in the same time period, we have killed over 700 Pakistani civilians in the same area”.
Compared with the 45 drone attacks carried out in 2009 which killed 720 people, there were 34 recorded cross-border predator strikes inside Pakistan during 2008, which left 385 people dead. However, nine of the 34 strikes were able to hit their actual targets, killing 12 al-Qaeda leaders. The first successful predator strike had killed Abu Laith al Libi, a senior commander of al-Qaeda who was targeted in North Waziristan on January 29, 2008. The second successful attack in Bajaur had killed Abu Sulayman Jazairi, al Qaeda’s external operations chief, on March 14, 2008. The third hit in South Waziristan on July 28, 2008, had killed Abu Khabab al Masri, al Qaeda’s weapons of mass destruction chief. The fourth drone attack in South Waziristan on August 13, 2008, had killed al-Qaeda leader Abdur Rehman.
The fifth strike came in North Waziristan near Miramshah on September 8, 2008, killing three al-Qaeda leaders, Abu Haris, Abu Hamza, and Zainul Abu Qasim. The sixth successful hit in South Waziristan on October 16, 2008 claimed the life of Khalid Habib, an important leader of al-Qaeda’s paramilitary shadow army. The seventh such attack in North Waziristan on October 31, 2008 had killed Abu Jehad al Masri, a top leader of the Egyptian Islamic Group (EIG). The eighth hit had killed al-Qaeda leader Abdullah Azzam al Saudi in North Waziristan on November 19, 2008. The ninth and the last successful American drone attack of 2008, carried out in Ali Khel region just outside Miramshah in North Waziristan November 22, 2008, had killed al-Qaeda leader Abu Zubair al Masri as well as his Pakistani fugitive accomplice Rashid Rauf, who was later reported to be alive.
According to the data compiled by Pakistani authorities, a total of 1270 persons have been killed in 84 incidents of cross border predator strikes between January 2006 and December 2009, averaging 315 killings per year and 15 deaths per drone attack. The average per month killings in predator strikes for the last four years (from 2006 to 2009) thus comes to 26 while the average per attack killings in the 83 drone hits during the same year comes to 15. According to the data, 98 people were killed in two US drone attacks carried out in the Pakistani territory in 2006, 67 more lost their lives in three attacks in 2007, another 385 persons were killed in 34 attacks in 2008 while 720 more lost their lives in 45 American drone attacks in the 12 months of 2009.
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