U.S. drone strike in Pakistan kills five suspected militants

[Eugene]

Source: Reuters

BY JAVED HUSSAIN
PARICHINAR, Pakistan Wed Nov 26, 2014 10:37am EST

(Reuters) - A U.S. drone killed five suspected militants in northwest Pakistan on Wednesday, a militant and a government official said, as the intensity of air strikes grew as part of an anti-Taliban offensive by the Pakistani military.

The drone strike hit a house in Datta Khel, near the Afghan border, which was used by militants, said a militant in the area. Those killed were Pakistani fighters, the militant said.

"The Government of Pakistan condemns the drone strike that took place in the early hours of Wednesday, 26 November 2014 at Garga, north of Shawal in North Waziristan Agency," the government said in a statement.

The Bureau of Investigative Journalist, which tracks drone strikes using media reports, says there have been 20 strikes so far this year.

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Read more: http://www.reuters.com/article/2014/11/26/us-pakistan-drones-idUSKCN0JA1K220141126

[L0oniX]

1. Well ...as long as they are "suspected" it's ok.

[Comrade Grumpy]

2. "41 Men Targeted, But 1,147 People Killed: US Drone Strikes, the Facts on the Ground"

http://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2014/nov/24/-sp-us-drone-strikes-kill-1147

The drones came for Ayman Zawahiri on 13 January 2006, hovering over a village in Pakistan called Damadola. Ten months later, they came again for the man who would become al-Qaida’s leader, this time in Bajaur.

Eight years later, Zawahiri is still alive. Seventy-six children and 29 adults, according to reports after the two strikes, are not.

However many Americans know who Zawahiri is, far fewer are familiar with Qari Hussain. Hussain was a deputy commander of the Pakistani Taliban, a militant group aligned with al-Qaida that trained the would-be Times Square bomber, Faisal Shahzad, before his unsuccessful 2010 attack. The drones first came for Hussain years before, on 29 January 2008. Then they came on 23 June 2009, 15 January 2010, 2 October 2010 and 7 October 2010.

Finally, on 15 October 2010, Hellfire missiles fired from a Predator or Reaper drone killed Hussain, the Pakistani Taliban later confirmed. For the death of a man whom practically no American can name, the US killed 128 people, 13 of them children, none of whom it meant to harm.

A new analysis of the data available to the public about drone strikes, conducted by the human-rights group Reprieve, indicates that even when operators target specific individuals – the most focused effort of what Barack Obama calls “targeted killing” – they kill vastly more people than their targets, often needing to strike multiple times. Attempts to kill 41 men resulted in the deaths of an estimated 1,147 people, as of 24 November.

[grahamhgreen]

3. Yet Reuters reports, "Some of them have killed civilians, although the majority of the dead are

suspected militants."

Then goes on to post a non-sequiter, "The region is closed to journalists and most civilians were ordered to leave their homes before the fighting started, making it difficult to get independent witness accounts of the situation."

If it's closed to journalists, how does one verify who was killed, and if they were a 'terrorist'?

[Comrade Grumpy]

5. I wonder how many of the 76 children killed trying to get Zawahiri were "suspected militants."

And how many of the 13 children killed tried to get that guy nobody has ever heard of?

[DeSwiss]

4. I suppose I should be thankful for these reports.

- I hope they're used extensively in the War Crimes Trials of all the responsible parties. The sick bastards......

K&R

It's kids and babies.

[cosmicone]

6. The fewer militatnts the better.

Go drones!

[Comrade Grumpy]

7. And all the dead kids? Go on, say it.

[grahamhgreen]

8. I suppose cosmicone's rationale would be: If you kill the parents the kids will become terrorists,

so kill them too!

[cosmicone]

9. These militants come to India and kill innocent people left and right.

They use bombs, IEDs, guns and kill hotel guests, people in Jewish centers, train stations and Hindu temples.

If there was a way to only kill militants and no one else, I'd support it. However, barring such a way and for the fact that the militants purposely surround themselves with human shields, the blood of the innocents is on the hands of the militants and not on the drones.

If any person has been on the receiving end of Islamic terror, they would think the same way as I do. It is easy to philosophize peace and non-violence while sitting in a recliner in the safety of Utah or Nevada but 'out there' the perspective is different.

[grahamhgreen]

11. Can we agree that if you kill a child accidentally by 'collateral damage', that most of the

relatives of that child will become radicalized?

How do we deal with this?

[cosmicone]

12. I don't know if most of them will get radicalized

They are either already radicalized or put some blame on the radicals who caused their child to die.

However, unfortunately, there is no easy solution. I don't like death to innocent children but there are no good options where the host to the terrorists will not cooperate with arresting the militants and handing them over for trials.

Under normal circumstances, we would just request country X to arrest and extradite criminals. Pakistan purposely refuses to do so because the militants are their state assets.

With all the anger directed at drone strikes, I find it somewhat naïve that no anger is directed at Pakistani government.

There are militants in many countries but drones are used primarily in Pakistan because all the other countries either arrest and punish the militants themselves or hand them over.

[grahamhgreen]

13. By all measures, we have inflamed radicalism with our use of violence, I say it's past time we

withdrew and took care of our problems here at home.

[cosmicone]

15. Pakistan always had radicalism

We fueled it by first supporting Zia ul Haq and the Pakistani ISI to combat Russians in Afghanistan. When the Russians were gone, Pakistan unleashed the radicals against India and, even worse, decided to become a terrorist superpower by exporting radicals to Sudan, Yemen, Chechnya, Bosnia, Kosovo, Dagestan, Xin Jiang, Thailand and Mindanao in addition to India.

Stupid GWB kept feeding Pakistan with money and weapons to feed its Islam-driven bloodlust against India. Obama has continued the aid.

What is needed is for Pakistani military and ISI to be cut down and all aid stopped. We should support and weaponize separatist movements in Baluchistan and Sindhudesh to keep Pakistani terrorists occupied on their home turf.

[Nihil]

14. "Go drones!"? Openly supporting the illegal killing & maiming of civilians on DU with joy?

Hateful, bigoted, bloodthirsty armchair warriors make me sick.

May you truly reap what you sow.

[cosmicone]

16. I'm glad you liked my post n/t

[EX500rider]

10. "The Government of Pakistan condemns the drone strike"

But not enough to shoot them down, which would be easy with their F-16's.

They even used to complain about the drone strikes when they were taking off from Pakistani air force bases....in other words they are for the drone strikes but pretend not to be for local public consumption.