US drone war brings torment, hope in Pakistan (Feature)

By Nadeem Sarwar Mar 19, 2010, 8:28 GMT

Islamabad - The tribesmen in Pakistan's mountainous districts along the Afghan border are divided over the United States' 'drone war,' which targets militants via missile strikes from afar.

For some, the strikes by unmanned aircraft bring torment while others rejoice out of hope for freedom from the clutches of the Taliban.

Khaista Khan, for example, said he despises the missile strikes carried out the CIA-operated predator drones because of the blood they shed and the Pashtun tribal honour they breach.

In August, he saw 12 charred bodies being pulled from the debris of a compound razed by two Hellfire missiles in Darpa Kheil, a small hamlet in the militancy-plagued tribal district of North Waziristan.

'Americans are cowards,' the 42-year-old said. 'They are afraid of fighting man-to-man in a battlefield and that is why they hit from the sky and run away.'

'Many people who did not support the Taliban previously support them now because the Americans are killing innocent people,' Khan said by phone from South Waziristan, one of the restive tribal region's seven districts.

It was not clear whether the government of former US president George W Bush took these risks into account when it stepped up drone attacks in 2008.

But it had little choice after realizing that Pakistan was doing little to eliminate Taliban fighters attacking NATO forces in Afghanistan or al-Qaeda operatives planning attacks in the West.

The strategy paid off.

Al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden remained untraceable, but the US drones killed several second-tier al-Qaeda operatives, including the mastermind of a 2006 trans-Atlantic aircraft terrorist plot, Rashid Rauf.

US President Barack Obama continued to use the drones as a critical tool in the revised policy on Taliban insurgency in Afghanistan, which also focuses on militant hideouts in neighbouring Pakistan.

A report by the New America Foundation, a conservative US think tank, said last month that there had been 45 drone attacks during Bush's two terms, compared with 51 during the first year of the Obama administration.

Altogether, the strikes have killed more than 1,200 people.

Around one-third of those killed were civilians, said the report, entitled The Year of the Drone, referring to the 2009 drone blitz, which left Pakistani Taliban leader Baitullah Mehsud dead and put the al-Qaeda network in Pakistan in disarray.

Khan claimed that the people in North Waziristan, currently the main target of the drone strikes, are developing psychological disorders because of the constant fear and anxiety caused by the drones regularly flying over the area.

'Everyone is scared here,' Khan said. 'It is like someone is pointing a loaded gun at you when you are working, eating your meal, sitting with the children or sleeping. It is becoming very difficult to live this way.'

The civilian suffering is fuelling anger among Pakistan's predominantly anti-American public, forcing the government to publicly condemn the strikes. However, it was suspected to have facilitated most of them by sharing intelligence with the CIA, the US Central Intelligence Agency.

The cooperation from reluctant Pakistani intelligence agencies might be due to constantly increasing pressure from Washington, but many residents in Pakistan's tribal region have come to see the drones as a blessing.

'These drones give us a sense of protection - that there is someone who is doing something against these people who kill innocent people in the name of Islam,' said a resident of Miranshah, the main town in North Waziristan, who asked to be identified as Shin Gul.

Gul, 29, fears Taliban persecution if his real name was known. His brother was murdered two months ago when his father refused to marry his young daughter to a Taliban fighter.

'People in the tribal region have varying opinions on the drone attacks,' said Nasir Dawar, a North Waziristan journalist who has covered dozens of the strikes.

'Some people think they are doing some good, and some believe they are killing innocent people and challenge the Pashtu national honour,' he said

Dawar said he was convinced that the drone aircraft were mainly targeting the militants and most of the civilians killed in the attacks were either from the extended families of the militants or victims of collateral damage.

'I have never seen a missed hit,' Dawar said, adding that the strikes were creating panic and fear among the militants.

Once used to moving freely, senior Taliban and al-Qaeda leaders are now being forced to spend their nights in sleeping bags under a tree in the fields or in a mountain cave and hold emergency meetings in a moving vehicle instead of a building, Dawar said.