Lahore– At least 355 people have been killed and 248 others injured in 32 incidents of cross border missile strikes, predator attacks and ground assaults carried out by the Afghanistan-based American forces inside the Pakistani tribal areas on the Pak-Afghan border in the first ten months of the year 2008 [January 1 to October 26], averaging 35 killings per month.
Figures compiled by the Pakistani ministry of interior show, of the 355 people killed by the American aerial attacks inside Pakistan, 301 were innocent civilians, 36 were alleged militants belonging to al-Qaeda and Taliban while the remaining 18 were the Pakistani security forces personnel. Data compiled by the interior ministry indicates only eight of the 32 strikes carried out by the American forces seemed right on target which killed 36 al-Qaeda or Taliban militants, including senior al-Qaeda leader Abu Laith al Libi, who was killed in the North Waziristan area on January 31, 2008. Most of these attacks were carried out on the basis of human intelligence provided by Pakistani and Afghan tribesmen who had been spying for the Americans. The remaining 24 attacks, mostly missile and drone strikes, went wrong due to faulty intelligence information provided by the local spies, killing innocent civilians, including women and children.
The Pakistani interior ministry data shows that there have been 32 recorded cross-border attacks by the Americans in Pakistan in the first ten months of 2008, as compared to 10 strikes during 2006 and 2007 combined. Interestingly, 16 of the 32 US attacks had taken place during the first eight months of the year 2008 – between January 1 and August 31 while the remaining 16 strikes occurred in a short span of hardly two months between September 3 and October 26, 2008. Since September 3, 2008, it appears that the Americans have upped their attacks in the Pakistani tribal areas in a bid to disrupt the al-Qaeda and the Taliban network, which they allege is being used to launch cross border ambushes against the NATO forces in Afghanistan.
The American military forces stationed in Afghanistan carried out nine aerial strikes between September 3 and September 25, 2008, killing 57 people and injuring 38 others. The attacks were launched on September 3, 4, 5, 8, 12, 15, 17, 22 and 27. However, the September 3 American action was unique in the sense that two CH-47 Chinook transport helicopters landed in the village of Zawlolai in the South Waziristan Agency with ground troops from the US Special Operation Forces, fired at three houses and killed 17, including five women and four sleeping children. Besides the two helicopters carrying the American Special Forces Commandos, two jet fighters and two gun-ship helicopters provided the air cover for the half-an-hour American operation, more than a kilometer inside the Pakistani border.
The month of October has been equally bad for those living on the Pakistani side of the tribal belt on North and South Waziristan agencies. Between October 1 and October 26 alone, seven deadly cross border attacks have been carried out inside the Pakistani territory, killing at least 42 people, mostly women and children. The attacks were launched on October 1, 3, 9, 11, 16, 23 and 26. While the October 1 drone strike allegedly targeted an al-Qaeda hide out in North Waziristan, the October 26 predator attack was aimed at an alleged Taliban compound in South Waziristan, prompting Prime Minister Syed Yousaf Raza Gillani to condemn the attack, describing them intolerable, thus raising tensions between Islamabad and Washington.
“American attacks in the Pak-Afghan tribal areas are harming the government’s efforts to isolate extremists and mobilise people against militancy”, said the Pakistani Premier a day after the strike. The next day, American Ambassador to Islamabad Ms Anne Patterson was summoned to the Foreign Office to officially lodge protest with the Bush administration over the continuing drone attacks. The American Ambassador was informed by the Pakistani foreign office officials that the continuing drone attacks inside the Pakistani territory, which were a violation of Pakistan’s sovereignty, should be stopped immediately, as these were causing deaths of innocent civilians.
On the other hand, however, it may be recalled that the Pakistani President Asif Ali Zardari, in an October 5 interview with the Wall Street Journal had conceded that the American attacks were taking place with his blessing and the agreement of the government headed by Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani. “We have an understanding with the United States, in the sense that we are going after an enemy together”, Zardari had stated. Therefore, as things stand, the American forces are literally operating in the Pakistani territory in hot pursuit of the al-Qaeda and Taliban-linked militias and Pakistan seems caught between the devil and the deep blue sea.
However, there are many in Islamabad’s diplomatic circles who maintain that although the US military in Pakistani territory would manage to kill some of its enemies but every missile strike invariably causes civilian deaths and contributes to the anti-America and pro-Taliban sentiment. Avoiding civilian casualties in aerial strikes is impossible and the US has already learnt it at great cost to its reputation that the collateral damage in Afghanistan has made the war against Taliban un-winnable. Therefore, the diplomatic circles believe, the United States surely would not want to meet the same fate while fighting the so-called war on terror in Pakistan.
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