New US drone attacks in Pakistan and Yemen
By <
http://www.globalresearch.ca/author/patrick-o-connor> Patrick O'Connor
Global Research, January 04, 2013
Marking the first US drone attacks of 2013, the Obama administration ordered
two separate missile bombardments in Pakistan and Yemen on Wednesday and
Thursday.
The latest attacks demonstrate that the drawdown of US-led occupying forces
in Afghanistan will be accompanied by an expansion of illegal drone
operations across the Middle East. At least 16 people were reported killed,
all alleged Taliban and Al Qaeda fighters, though details of each incident
are still emerging and Washington routinely covers up the killing of
civilians in drone strikes.
On Wednesday night, approximately 10:40 pm local time, Pakistani Taliban
leader Maulvi Nazir, also known as Mullah Nazir, was among several people
killed in South Waziristan, the tribal region bordering Afghanistan. Nazir
is among the most prominent figures to have been assassinated in recent
years, having led one of the four Taliban factions in the Waziristan region.
Different reports that have emerged since the strike claim that Nazir was
killed by at least two missiles fired either at a vehicle in which he was
travelling near Wana, the largest town in South Waziristan, or at a house
near Wana. Reports differ on how many other people were killed, with some
sources suggesting eight or nine additional casualties.
Unnamed Pakistani officials were cited confirming that Nazir's senior
deputies, Atta Ullah and Rafey Khan, were among the dead. These sources also
claimed the others killed were Nazir's Taliban associates. Thousands
reportedly attended the funerals of the men, and markets and shops closed in
those parts of South Waziristan that Nazir controlled.
Yesterday, another two drone missiles struck North Waziristan, killing four
more alleged Taliban militants, reportedly including two Uzbek nationals, as
they were travelling in a car. Multiple sources report that a second round
of drone missiles was fired when people nearby attempted to recover the
bodies, though it is not known if more people were killed or injured as a
result.
On the same day as the atrocity in North Waziristan, three alleged members
of Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula were killed while travelling in a car
in Redaa, in the southern Yemeni province of Al Bayda. Redaa is where a US
drone strike killed 11 civilians, including three children, on September 2.
Reuters cited a Yemeni government official as claiming that a Yemeni
aircraft carried out the latest strike in Redaa, but local people who saw
the US drone responsible contradicted him. Washington has ordered a series
of drone attacks in Yemen in recent days, enjoying the full support of its
stooge, President Mansour Al Hadi. (See "
<
http://www.wsws.org/en/articles/2013/01/03/yeme-j03.html> US drone strikes
continue in Yemen" .)
Pentagon Press Secretary George Little spoke with reporters off camera
yesterday about the drone strike that killed Maulvi Nazir. Without
explicitly acknowledging US responsibility, he declared: "If the reports are
true, this would be a significant blow and would be very helpful, not just
to the United States but also to our Pakistani partners and the Afghans.
This is someone who had a great deal of blood on his hands."
President Barack Obama in fact bears responsibility for the continued
bloodletting in Afghanistan, Pakistan and Yemen. While Washington is
currently in a de facto alliance with Al Qaeda-connected militia groups
fighting against the Syrian government, the so-called "war on terror"
remains the pretext for its military operations across the Middle East.
The New York Times reported in November that drone strikes are estimated to
have killed at least 2,500 people. This is likely a significant
underestimation.
The British-based Bureau of Investigative Journalism (BIJ) has calculated
that by August 2011, 2,347 people had been killed by drone attacks in
Pakistan alone. The total included at least 392 civilians, 175 of them
children. The Obama administration refuses to tally civilian deaths,
arbitrarily labelling all males within a drone target area as "combatants"
unless there is evidence proving otherwise.
Maulvi Nazir headed one of the Pakistani Taliban factions that had reached
an agreement with the Pakistani military, with both sides pledging that
their forces would not target one another. Nazir was allied with Hafiz Gul
Bahadur, leader of another militia in North Waziristan who had also signed a
peace pact with the Pakistani military.
Some Pakistani army commanders labelled the two figures "good Taliban."
Nazir funnelled fighters across the Afghan border to participate in
operations against the US-NATO occupying forces and also allegedly sheltered
members of various Al Qaeda-affiliated groups, while at the same time
cooperating with the Pakistani military. He collaborated with the army's
2009 offensive against rival Taliban factions, which the government in
Islamabad launched under intense pressure from the Obama administration.
Nazir had been targeted by rival Islamist militia leaders who have launched
attacks against Pakistani military and government targets. In November, he
narrowly survived a suicide bomb attack that was reportedly organised by the
Tehrik-e-Taliban (TTP).
The London Telegraph 's Rob Crilly noted: "This could well herald a new time
of instability as other militant factions try to vie for control. There is
also a question of what this means for US-Pakistan relations. Mullah Nazir
was very much an American target who, I suspect, Pakistan would have been
happy to leave alone, so there is a question mark over what this means."
The Pakistani government, dependent on US military and financial aid,
publicly opposes the drone strikes as a violation of the country's
sovereignty, while privately permitting Washington to proceed. It is unclear
whether any government or military figures in Islamabad were consulted
before Nazir's assassination, but the Obama administration has made clear
that irrespective of any considerations of international law, it claims the
right to murder anyone, including American citizens, anywhere on the planet.
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Received on Fri Jan 04 2013 - 17:16:51 EST
