KARACHI, OCT 06: The United States government has made a series of attacks on targets in Pakistan since 2004 using drones (unmanned aerial vehicles). Most of these attacks are on targets in the Federally Administered Tribal Areas (FATA) in Northwest Pakistan.
Under the George W. Bush administration, these controversial attacks were called a part of the US' "War on Terrorism" and sought to defeat the Taliban and Al-Qaeda militants who were thought to have found a safe haven in Pakistan.
These strikes are thought to be carried out by unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) operated remotely by the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) and have continued under the Presidency of Barack Obama.
Generally the UAVs used are MQ-1 Predator and more recently MQ-9 Reaper firing AGM-114 Hellfire missiles. The drones have become a weapon of choice for the United States in the fight against al-Qaeda. Some media refer to the series of attacks as a "drone war"
The first drone attack was tracing on 18 June 2004, in which Nek Muhammad Wazir, charismatic Pashtun military leader killed and 5 others near Wana, South Waziristan.
After then not a single month is vacant from these drone attacks, so many people whose never involve in any criminal activity or they has no link with any Taliban and Al-Qaeda were killed in these drone attacks.
As per a study collating all strike data since 2004, the casualties up to September 2009 are 665, in which only 35 important militants’ killed rest killed without any reason.
According to Pakistani authorities, from January 14, 2006 to April 8, 2009, 60 U.S. strikes against Pakistan killed 701 people, of which 14 were Al-Qaeda militants and 687 innocent civilians.
President Barack Obama authorized the continuation of these strikes after he became US president. Top US officials consider these strikes very successful and believe that the senior al-Qaeda leadership has been decimated by these strikes.
US officials stated in March 2009 that the Predator strikes had killed nine of al-Qaeda's 20 top commanders. The officials added that many top Taliban and al-Qaeda leaders, as a result of the strikes, had fled to Quetta or even further to Karachi.
Some US politicians have condemned the drone strikes. US Congressman Dennis Kucinich asserted that the United States was violating international law by carrying out strikes against a country that never attacked the United States.
US military reports asserted that al-Qaeda is being slowly but systematically routed because of these attacks, and that they have served to sow the seeds of uncertainty and discord among their ranks. They also claimed that the drone attacks have addled and confused the Taliban, and have led them to turn against each other.
In May 2009 it was reported that the USA was sharing drone intelligence with Pakistan. Leon Panetta reiterated on May 19, 2009 that the US intended to continue the Drone attacks.
Pakistan has repeatedly protested these attacks as they are an infringement of its sovereignty and because civilian deaths have also resulted, including women and children, which has further angered the Pakistani government and people.
In September 2009, a spokesman for the Pakistani army condemned Washington's killing of Pakistani civilians and warned of retaliatory action: "Border violations by US-led forces in Afghanistan, which have killed scores of Pakistani civilians, would no longer be tolerated.
The drone attacks continue, despite repeated requests made by Pakistani President Asif Ali Zardari through different channels. Baitullah Mehsud while claiming responsibility for the 2009 Lahore police academy attacks stated that it was in retaliation for the drone attacks.
According to The Daily Telegraph, Pakistani intelligence has agreed to secretly provide information to the United States on Mehsud's and his militants' whereabouts while publicly the Pakistani government will continue to condemn the attacks.
On April 28, 2009 Pakistan's consul general to the US, Aqil Nadeem, asked the US to hand over control of its drones in Pakistan to his government.
Nadeem said, "Do we want to lose the war on terror or do we want to keep those weapons classified? If the American government insists on our true cooperation, then they should also be helping us in fighting those terrorists.
President Zardari has also requested that Pakistan be given control over the drones but this has been rejected by the US who is worried that Pakistanis will leak information about targets to militants.
On August 20, 2009 the Pakistan Air Force announced that it would begin development on its own version, called Falco, of unmanned aerial vehicles in collaboration with Italian company Selex Galileo. Production was to begin at the Pakistan Aeronautical Complex in Kamra.
On June 3, 2009, the United Nations Human Rights Council (UNHRC) delivered a report sharply critical of US tactics.
The report asserted that the US government has failed to keep track of civilian casualties of its military operations, including the drone attacks, and to provide means for citizens of affected nations to obtain information about the casualties and any legal inquests regarding them.
Any such information held by the U.S. military is allegedly inaccessible to public due to the high level of secrecy surrounding the drone attacks program.
The US representative at UNHRC has argued that the UN investigator for extrajudicial, summary or arbitrary executions does not have jurisdiction over US military actions; while another US diplomat claimed that the US military is investigating any wrongdoing and doing all it can to furnish information about the deaths.
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