Over a dozen terrorists were reported killed on Sunday in successive >drone strikes in the Babargarh area along the North and South Waziristan border. The CIA-operated drones targeted terrorist training camps and reports from the two tribal agencies suggest a couple of terrorist commanders could have been killed.
The terrorist camps apparently belonged to Qari Imran of the Hafiz Gul Bahadur camp. Other reports claimed the slain terrorists belonged to the Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) which recently offered peace talks with Pakistan but has refused to lay down weapons.
This is the second round of drone attacks this year. The first visits last week saw the elimination of an important U.S. target, Mullah Nazir, whose writ ran over the Ahmadzai Wazir area of South Waziristan and helped the Taliban in Afghanistan.
Drone attacks have been a contentious issue between Pakistan and the U.S. but in the case of this year’s strikesthis year no suo motu condemnation was issued by Islamabad. When asked about last week’s drone attacks at the regular press briefing on Friday, Foreign Office spokesman reiterated Pakistan’s stated position that Islamabad considers them illegal, a violation of sovereignty and counter-productive. Asked if Pakistan planned to take the issue to the U.N. or any other international forum, he said efforts were on to resolve the issue bilaterally.
