Missile Strike Deep Inside Pakistan

Suspected U.S. Drone Attack Hits House Outside Tribal Areas For 1st Time, Killing 6

(CBS/AP)  A suspected U.S. missile strike hit a village well inside Pakistani territory Wednesday, officials said, killing six alleged militants and indicating American willingness to pursue insurgents beyond the lawless tribal regions.

The strike was the latest in a surge of cross-border attacks in Pakistan's militant-plagued northwest in the last three months that have killed scores of suspected al Qaeda and Taliban militants, but have enraged the country's civilian leadership.

The attack was the first to hit an area outside the semiautonomous tribal belt that directly borders Afghanistan, something that could trigger extra anger among Pakistanis.

Javed Marwat, a local government official, told The Associated Press that two missiles destroyed a house in Indi Khel village in Bannu district. Two Pakistani intelligence officials said their agents reported that militants from Central Asia were among the six killed.

The U.S., which says Taliban and al Qaeda militants use pockets of northwest Pakistan to plan attacks on foreign troops in Afghanistan, has been blamed in about 20 cross-border missile strikes since August. The U.S. rarely confirms or denies the strikes, which are believed to be carried out mainly by the CIA.

The missiles are apparently fired from unmanned planes launched in Afghanistan, where some 32,000 U.S. troops are fighting the Taliban and other militants.

Pakistan has protested the strikes as violations of its sovereignty and international law, but the attacks continue, leading analysts to speculate that the two nations may have a secret deal.

Until Wednesday, all the attacks since August were in North and South Waziristan, two tribal regions where the government has ceded much of its limited control to militants. U.S. officials say they want to help Pakistan regain sovereignty over such areas.

The Bannu district, which falls under the control of the regional government, begins roughly 18 miles away from the border with Afghanistan.

Two other intelligence officials, both based in Bannu, said militants had begun moving farther away from the border, including to their district and other settled areas, in an apparent bid to avoid the missile strikes.

All the intelligence officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak to news media.

Pakistani officials say they are rarely warned of such attacks, and have demanded the U.S. share intelligence so that Pakistan can go after targets on its own.

Even as the U.S. strikes have picked up, American officers in Afghanistan have stressed improved day-to-day Pakistani cooperation in squeezing militants nested along both sides of the lengthy, porous border.

U.S. military officials said troops in Afghanistan coordinated with Pakistan on Sunday in shelling insurgents inside Pakistan who were launching rockets at the foreign troops. Pakistan's official statement on the matter referred only to militant activity in Afghanistan.

In the past month, NATO and Pakistan also have cooperated in so-called Operation Lion Heart - a series of complementary operations that involve Pakistani army and paramilitary troops, and NATO on the Afghan side, said Col. John Spiszer, U.S. commander in northeast Afghanistan.

"What we have done is worked very hard to refocus our ... intelligence, surveillance, reconnaissance assets to do everything we can to identify transiting across the border," he told a Pentagon news conference in Washington via teleconference from Afghanistan on Tuesday.

Commanders hope pressure on both sides of the border will eventually mean militants will be "running out of options on places to go," Spiszer said.

U.S. officials have praised Pakistani military offensives against militants in its border region, including an operation in the Bajur tribal area that the army says has killed some 1,500 alleged insurgents.

Besides questions of sovereignty, Pakistani officials say the U.S. missile strikes are counterproductive because they often kill civilians and deepen anti-American and anti-government sentiment along the border.

But Gen. David Petraeus, the head of U.S. Central Command, has defended the missile strikes, saying at least three top extremist leaders, whom he did not identify, have been killed in recent months in the attacks.

Also Wednesday, gunmen shot and killed a retired Pakistani army general who had led military operations against insurgents in the tribal regions. The attack occurred on the outskirts of the capital, Islamabad.

Ameer Faisal Alvi was in his vehicle when the assailants opened fire, killing him and his driver before fleeing, police official Mohammed Tariq said. The motive was unknown, he said.

[larryhammick]

Funny how Islamabad puts on a show of objecting to these pinpoint strikes. How would the CIA know which house to blow up, unless someone in Pakistan is telling them?

The target this time was about 19 miles inside Pakistan. A safehouse, I presume. Maybe some bigshot was in transit, into or out of Waziristan. Zawahiri?

[hamiltongrad]

SuperDEM: Since real history is not taught in our schools, you are probably unawardthat after WWII in Germany there was an uprising and low level war where NAZIs bombed our troops, trains, sniper fire, roadside bombs etc. We came down on them hard, killing whole villages that were "supporter" of those NAZI Basssstards. And thus they were gone. Same here. We need the resolve, and we have it , to do the job.

God Bless Pres Bush and our new President Obama.

[sfcusarmy1]

HA! HA! HA! HA! I was having a bad day until I read this story. Nothing like 6 more Dirt Bags getting a one way ticket to see Allah. Just makes my day:) My hat is off to the UAV pilots that carried out this mission. Job well done!!!

[inventagod2]

The Bu$h Pentagoons Invade Pakistan!

[mtminds]

So, how many more countries does America have to invade to get credit for starting World War III? - earache4

How many countries that have had offices, hotels and businesses blown up by terrorists does it take to start WWIII?

[chris32324]

pirmin,if you could clean anyones house this whole mess woulda been cleaned up by now and not still in another planning stage,get a grip man.

[superdem]

I have one question for all you "inside" military guys congratulating yourselves on this operation - what in the world good does this do ? Do you really believe the "good guys" are going to go against the "bad guys" - who are their uncles, cousins, and brothers, to do what the United States wants ? Do you really believe the United States can ever control Pakistan, or Afghanistan, or Iraq ? Do you really believe destroying houses and killing people in villages from the air makes the United States look good to these people ? Do you really believe the United States can, or should, be directing the course of the world from the cockpit of unmanned birds ? I can''t believe my country thinks it can rule the world, I can''t believe we can earn anyone''s respect or trust by invasions, bombings, black operations, or any of that. They live there, we don''t. We''re just living up to their radicals'' expectations, and making things worse.

[promaclaura]

The use of drones, which supply 95% of the full-motion video images commanders use to watch insurgent activity, has skyrocketed in recent years. As recently as 2005, drones flew 100,000 hours, most of it in support of troops in combat in Iraq and Afghanistan. In 2008, the number of hours in flight increased to nearly 400,000.

Since last year, the military has added more than 600 unmanned aircraft, ranging from small hand-launched spy planes to missile- and bomb-carrying Reapers. The military has about 6,000 such aircraft, up from 167 drones at the beginning of the war in 2001.

Air Force surveillance flights in Iraq and Afghanistan have increased substantially.

In Iraq in September, the Air Force flew 862 surveillance sorties compared with 506 in September 2007.

In Afghanistan, the Air Force flew 462 surveillance flights in September compared with 248 a year earlier

-Thank you President Bush and our military for seeing the value of this aircraft and steadily increasing their use to help protect our troops.

[impeach___w]

There Will be an attack NOV 26-28.

Isreal may be attacking Iran.

Someone will be attacked. This is not an Obama Idea.

Just Circle those dates.

[pirmin3]

Well done! If Pakistan won''t clean their house we''ll be happy to. Where should we send the cleaning bill?

[promaclaura]

Hats off to the ground element, if there was one in these cases, who aims the targeting laser on the militants house. It MAY all be done from the air, but anyone hiding inside Pakistan, dressed as a local, but secretly following militants and telling the Predator which house they are in by shining a laser on it, has big cojones.


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Posted by farmerbb at 06:55 AM : Nov 19, 2008

I was thinking about the guy on the ground as well. The article mentions the CIA conducting these operations and I bet they are in cahoots with Pakistan intelligence. It sounds like something out of a James Bond movie and I applaud the brave people who infiltrate the "bad" guys to shut them down.

Also, if the tribes in Pakistan would get mad at extremists and give them the boot they would not be dealing with drone bombings.

[promaclaura]

WOW!! You would think Obama was already in office. What''''s next? Is Dubya going to start a dialog with Iran, Syria, Cuba?


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Posted by nowaymcgoo at 06:23 AM : Nov 19, 2008

It''s more like: "Wow", what planet have you been on. The U.S. has been conducting these drone attacks for along time now and it has nothing to do with Obama.

[farmerbb]

Hats off to the ground element, if there was one in these cases, who aims the targeting laser on the militants house. It MAY all be done from the air, but anyone hiding inside Pakistan, dressed as a local, but secretly following militants and telling the Predator which house they are in by shining a laser on it, has big cojones.

[perk235]

When there is a war waged against something amorphous as "terror" then it means it will never end, it will be waged in every country in the world, and creates a shift of wealth to companies that maintain the military.

That strategy cannot be sustained and creates more vitriolic opponents than we had before.

[earache4]

So, how many more countries does America have to invade to get credit for starting World War III?

[bjcone8559]

WOW!! You would think Obama was already in office. What''s next? Is Dubya going to start a dialog with Iran, Syria, Cuba?