drones

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UN to US: Drone Attacks Could Be Unlawful

Human rights watchdog wants more accountability from CIA in Pakistan

(Newser) - A UN human rights watchdog has some strong misgivings about the CIA drone attacks on suspected terrorists in Pakistan that have killed 600 people since last year. "Extralegal executions" are a violation of international law, Philip Alston tells the BBC. “These Predators are being operated in a framework...

US Drones Back Up Pakistani Offensive

Predators offer intel on militant positions in South Waziristan

(Newser) - The US military is supporting the Pakistani offensive against Taliban militants in South Waziristan with intelligence and imaging collected by unmanned Predator drones. The support is separate from the CIA program using the drones inside Pakistan to kill terrorist leaders. “We are coordinating with the Pakistanis,” a military...

Taliban Chief Cracks Jokes, Vows Revenge
 Taliban Chief Cracks 
 Jokes, Vows Revenge 
Interview
Oct 6, 2009 6:48 AM CDT

Taliban Chief Cracks Jokes, Vows Revenge

Media sitdown dispells rumors Hakimullah Mehsud is dead

(Newser) - Hakimullah Mehsud met with reporters Sunday for the first time since winning control of Pakistan's Taliban, quashing speculation that he had been slain in a succession struggle following his predecessor's death in a US drone attack. Flanked by heavily armed fighters, the new leader sat on a blue blanket, in...

Obama May Boost Drones Instead of Troops

Shifting focus to Pakistan may avoid increasing forces

(Newser) - The White House is looking at expanding counterterror operations in Pakistan as an alternative to a major military escalation in Afghanistan, two senior officials tell the AP. The military would rely on armed drones that could contain al-Qaeda in a smaller, if more remote, area and keep its leaders from...

Taliban Finally Confirm Mehsud's Death

(Newser) - Weeks after a US drone reportedly took out the Taliban's leader in Pakistan, Baitullah Mehsud's fellow commanders have confirmed his death. Two Taliban officials—including his successor, Hakimullah Mehsud—tell the BBC that their leader actually died Sunday after being critically injured in the airstrike. The development also clears up...

CIA Uses Blackwater to Help Run Drone Attacks

(Newser) - The CIA has relied on a secret division inside the company once known as Blackwater for its drone operations in Pakistan and Afghanistan, private employees and government officials tell the New York Times. The for-profit company assembles and loads Hellfire missiles and quarter-ton bombs on secret CIA bases on both...

Officials: Taliban's Mehsud Is Dead

(Newser) - Pakistani officials have confirmed the death of Baitullah Mehsud, the Pakistani Taliban leader, in an American drone strike early Wednesday. While there is still no concrete evidence of his death, the country's foreign minister said today that "he has been taken out." One security official told the New ...

US Drone May Have Killed Taliban Leader Mehsud

(Newser) - Potentially big news out of Pakistan: A US drone may have killed Pakistani Taliban chief Baitullah Mehsud, reports Reuters. "There is reason to believe that reports of his death may be true, but it can't be confirmed at this time," said an anonymous US official. Mehsud is an...

US Missile Kills Son of Bin Laden
US Missile
Kills Son of
Bin Laden
Jul 22, 2009 6:58 PM CDT

US Missile Kills Son of Bin Laden

Officials think drone strike hit him in Pakistan

(Newser) - The US is pretty sure that an American missile killed Osama bin Laden's son in Pakistan, reports NPR. Spy agencies are "80 to 85%" certain that a missile from a US drone killed Saad bin Laden, thought to be in his late 20s, sometime in the last year. Saad...

Taliban Buys Kids for Suicide Bombings

(Newser) - The Taliban is buying children as young as 7 and turning them into suicide bombers, the Washington Times reports. The going rate is $7,000 to $14,000, a huge amount in Pakistan, where where the average income is $2,600. Pakistani and US officials lay blame for the practice...

US Drone Kills 60 in Pakistan; May Be Deadliest Ever

(Newser) - The American hunt for Taliban leader Baitullah Mehsud—implicated, among other things, in the assassination of Benazir Bhutto—took two major twists today in Pakistan. Early reports suggest that a US military drone killed about 60 suspected militants after the funeral of an insurgent commander in South Waziristan near the...

US, Pakistani Attacks Have Rattled Al-Qaeda: Analysts

(Newser) - Recent US and Pakistani efforts have rattled al-Qaeda, intelligence officials tell the Washington Post, with unmanned drones having killed about half of the US’ 20 “high-value” al-Qaeda targets since last fall. Combined with Pakistan’s offensive against its Taliban allies in the Swat region, the terror group’s position...

US Offers Pakistan Key Control of Predator Missions

Joint US-Pakistan project seeks to bolster Pakistani government against Taliban

(Newser) - The US military has been flying armed Predator drones over Pakistan and has offered the Pakistani military significant control over the targets and missions, the Los Angeles Times reports. The program—separate from the CIA's drone missions, which Pakistan accuses of violating its sovereignty—began in recent weeks and is...

US Pinpoints New Drone Targets in Pakistan

Missile strikes evaluated as part of regional policy review

(Newser) - As the US reviews its controversial air strike program in Pakistan, US and Pakistani intelligence officials are adding new targets to its list, the Wall Street Journal reports. Pakistani officials hope that expanding the drone program to target extremists will win them public support; at the same time, the Obama...

US Missiles Kill 8 Militants in Pakistan

Islamabad complains that drone strikes help Taliban

(Newser) - An American drone attack today killed at least eight militants in a Pakistani tribal area, Reuters reports. "There are 'guests' among the dead," an anonymous intelligence official says, referring to non-Pakistani militants. The missile assault struck either a house or a bunker in South Waziristan, a Pakistani Taliban...

Pakistan: US Strikes Boost Local Qaeda Threat

But attacks are cutting fighters' global abilities

(Newser) - US drone strikes are heightening al-Qaeda’s threat to Pakistan, even as the attacks hurt the organization's ability to coordinate on a global scale, Pakistani officials say. The strikes have helped decentralize the group, but pockets focused on local jihad are fighting back. The officials also worry that an upcoming...

US Drone Kills 31 in Pakistan Strike
 US Drone Kills 31 
 in Pakistan Strike 
UPDATED
Feb 16, 2009 5:44 AM CST

US Drone Kills 31 in Pakistan Strike

Attack is first in region bordering Waziristan

(Newser) - A US drone plane fired missiles at a building reportedly housing militants in northwest Pakistan, killing at least 31 people, reports the New York Times—the second time in three days such a strike has claimed upward of 30 lives. "Afghan Taliban were holding an important meeting there when...

CIA Missile Strike Kills 2 al-Qaeda Leaders

(Newser) - A secret CIA airstrike on New Year's Day killed two high-ranking al-Qaeda operatives in Pakistan, the Washington Post reports. The missile strike took out al-Qaeda's chief of operations in Pakistan and his lieutenant. The men were linked to high-profile suicide bombings throughout the nation—including a blast at the Islamabad...

US Drone Strike Kills 7 in Pakistan
US Drone Strike Kills
7 in Pakistan
Dec 22, 2008 6:48 AM CST

US Drone Strike Kills 7 in Pakistan

Attack mounts pressure for government to act

(Newser) - An unmanned US drone is suspected of firing two missiles in Pakistan that killed seven people, the BBC reports. Taliban were seen pulling bodies from a fort-like house afterward as tribesmen fired at the aircraft. Since August, American-operated drones have launched more than 20 missiles in the tribal areas near...

US Drone Downed in Pakistan
 US Drone Downed in Pakistan 
Sep 24, 2008 7:27 AM CDT

US Drone Downed in Pakistan

Pakistan claims US spy craft crash-landed near Afghan border

(Newser) - The Pakistani military says it has recovered the wreckage of an American spy drone in the tense Afghan border region. Local tribesmen had earlier claimed to have shot the drone down, but Pakistani officials said the wreckage had no bullet holes, and apparently was downed by a malfunction. US officials...

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