Obama admits drones used in Pakistan

31 Jan 2012, 11:43 am   -   Source: AAP
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Obama confirmed that Pakistan's lawless tribal zone was a target. (Getty)

Obama confirmed that Pakistan's lawless tribal zone was a target. (Getty)

President Barack Obama has confirmed that US drone aircraft have struck Taliban and al Qaeda targets within Pakistan.

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President Barack Obama has confirmed that US drone aircraft have struck Taliban and al Qaeda targets within Pakistan -- operations that until now had not been officially acknowledged.

When asked about the use of drones by his administration in a chat with web users on Google+ and YouTube, Obama said "a lot of these strikes have been in the FATA" -- Pakistan's Federally Administered Tribal Areas.

Below (not on apps) are statistics correlated by the UK's Bureau of Investigative Journalism, a not for profit entity, which claim to show the minimum number of deaths at the hands of CIA-operated drone strikes, reported by credible media outlets.

 

"For the most part, they've been very precise precision strikes against al Qaeda and their affiliates, and we're very careful in terms of how it's been applied," Obama said on Monday.

"This is a targeted, focused effort at people who are on a list of active terrorists, who are trying to go in and harm Americans, hit American facilities, American bases, and so on."

Explaining that many strikes were carried out "on al Qaeda operatives in places where the capacities of that military in that country may not be able to get them", Obama confirmed that Pakistan's lawless tribal zone was a target.

"So, obviously, a lot of these strikes have been in the FATA, and going after al Qaeda suspects who are up in very tough terrain along the border between Afghanistan and Pakistan," he said.

"For us to be able to get them in another way would involve probably a lot more intrusive military action than the ones we're already engaging in."

US officials say Pakistan's tribal belt provides sanctuary to Taliban fighting for 10 years in Afghanistan, al-Qaeda groups plotting attacks on the West, Pakistani Taliban who routinely bomb Pakistan and other foreign fighters.

Sixty-four US missile strikes were reported in Pakistan's semi-autonomous tribal belt last year, down from 101 reported in 2010, according to AFP tallies.

The United States had until now refused to discuss drone strikes publicly, but the program has dramatically increased as the Obama administration looks to withdraw all foreign combat troops from Afghanistan by the end of 2014.

The Pakistani government is understood to agree to the program despite popular opposition at home, and drones have reportedly killed dozens of al Qaeda and Taliban operatives and hundreds of low-ranking fighters since 2004.

But the missile strikes fuel widespread anti-American resentment, which is running especially high in Pakistan since US air strikes inadvertently killed 24 Pakistani soldiers in November.

A US-NATO investigation blamed the deaths on a litany of errors and botched communications on both sides. But Pakistan rejected the findings, insisting the strikes had been deliberate.

Islamabad is now reviewing its entire alliance with the United States and has kept its Afghan border closed to NATO supply convoys for two months.

It ordered US personnel to leave Shamsi air base in western Pakistan, widely believed to have been a hub for the CIA drone program, and is thought likely to only reopen the Afghan border by exacting taxes on convoys.

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Your Comments

Attention Ellen

Soothsayer - from Earth, 4 months ago

Perhaps there shouldnt have been anyone hanging around the World Trade Centre when the so called ''terrorists'' went after the true terrorists of the world ...HUGE CORPORATIONS

The Lady

Ellen - from United States, 4 months ago

If they weren't hanging around terrorists, they wouldn't be killed.

The USA are winning their 11 year war!

Mona - from Australia, 4 months ago

"who are trying to go in and harm Americans, hit American facilities, American bases, and so on." & all these americans, facilities & bases are in Afghanistan! A nation that has been invaded by an aggressor bent on revenge & don't they have oil and mineral rsources there too? The USA doesn't make war except as to how it can benefit tthe USA, freedom fighters, not! The USA have drones & billions $ in weapons & all the Afghans have to fight with, are their own lives. The Paki's cower b4 the USA.

Collateral damage

Wag - from Sydney, 4 months ago

Do these American war sickos keep a tally of blown apart women and children or are the dromes equiped with a terrorist only seeking device ????

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