Latest drone strike 'hits 300 mark'

18 Oct 2011, 1:25 pm   -   Source: SBS, AFP
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Increasingly controversial CIA drone strikes on rural targets in Pakistan have reached a new milestone: 300, and most of them under President Obama, new figures show.

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Over the weekend, US missiles killed six suspected militants in northwestern Pakistan near the Afghan border, Pakistani intelligence officials say.

According to the UK's Bureau of Investigative Journalism, this attack meant a grim milestone for the CIA's drone war in the country; the 300th attack on alleged militants in Pakistan's tribal areas.

The weekend strikes were part of a flurry of such attacks which could indicate a more aggressive American strategy against insurgents finding sanctuary there.

Visualisation data courtesy of the Bureau of Investigative Journalism.

In the latest attack, drone-fired missiles slammed into a compound near the border town of Angore Adda in the South Waziristan tribal region.

The strike targeted fighters of Maulvi Nazir, a Pakistani militant commander who is accused of working with the Taliban and al-Qaeda to direct cross-border attacks, the officials said, speaking on condition of anonymity as they were not authorised to talk to media on record.

Saturday's strike was the latest in a string of missile attacks targeting the militant-infested border region; four in 48 hours in the lead up to the last weekend, the not-for-profit Bureau reported.

On Friday, US missiles killed four unidentified people in a part of the North Waziristan tribal region where the Haqqani network holds sway.

A day earlier, a strike in North Waziristan killed Janbaz Zadran, who US officials say was a top commander in the Haqqani network and had helped orchestrate attacks in Kabul and southeastern Afghanistan. OBAMA'S DRONES

Of the 300 drone strikes which the BIJ has counted since June 2004, 248 have occurred during the presidency of Barack Obama. The technology allows those firing the missiles to do so from the safety of an office, often located in the US, avoiding the prospect of US casualties. But the accuracy - and the legal grey area surrounding it - has come under question.

The analysis by the Bureau claims that at least 2,318 people have been killed in the CIA's campaign, but, that 386-775 are civilians.

It also states that 173 children have been killed.

Earlier in the year, however, US officials disputed the BIJ's figures.

"The numbers cited by this organization are way off the mark," a senior U.S. official told ABC News.

"We see the battlefield in real time; the Bureau of Investigative Journalism doesn't... (the) allegations about individual strikes are, in every case, divorced from the facts on the ground."

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