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| India-Pakistan |
| Pakistan: Former minister urges downing of US drones |
| 2009-01-30 |
| (AKI) - By Syed Saleem Shahzad - If United States aircraft continue to carry out airstrikes inside Pakistan, the Pakistani Air Force should shoot them down, a former interior minister, Lt. Gen. Hamid Nawaz told journalists on Wednesday. The comments, which appear to signal a major policy shift in Pakistan-US military cooperation, came after US defence secretary Robert Gates said on Tuesday that Washington would continue with strikes by unmanned Predator drones against militants and that Pakistan was aware of this. Nawaz was interior minister in Pakistan's last interim government before the February 2008 elections and was a close aide of former president Pervez Musharraf when he headed the army. In a statement on Wednesday, Pakistan's foreign ministry denied the existence of a deal between Pakistan and the US allowing unmanned US Predator drone attacks against suspected militants. Twenty-one people were killed last Friday in northwest Pakistan in the first suspected US missile strikes since US President Barack Obama took office. The two attacks took place on villages in North and South Waziristan tribal areas. Pakistan's lawless tribal regions are believed by intelligence services to be a haven for Al-Qaeda and the Taliban. The US last year stepped up drone attacks in the area in frustration at Pakistan's failure to stem the flow of militants to and from Afghanistan, despite the various military operations it has launched in the northwest. The US has rarely confirmed or denied the attacks, which are reported to have killed over 220 people. The attacks have angered Pakistanis and the government says they violate its sovereignty and undermine its military campaigns. Pakistan is now revising its foreign policy in the belief that America will wield less influence in the future than it has in recent years and that US financial support for the 'war on terror' is likely to decrease, according to unnamed AKI diplomatic and military sources. The credit crunch and global recession that began in the US has impacted Pakistan. Washington's late payment last year of 800 million dollars of anti-terrorism funding was a major cause of Pakistan's financial meltdown. Only 101 million dollars of these funds were transferred to Pakistan last Friday. Defence sources see further delays in payment of anti-terror funds from the US to Pakistan next year when its finances are further strained by additional troop expenditure in Afghanistan. So far Washington has spent over 700 billion dollars fighting insurgency in Iraq and in Afghanistan, where it is due to deploy an additional 33,000 troops in 2009. |
| Posted by:Fred |
| #1 Meanwhile back in the US, high level business drones get billions in bonuses. |
| Posted by: Anguper Hupomosing9418 2009-01-30 12:01 |