James Lee Harper Jr.-USAF—AFP
Second strike targeted militants searching for injured victims of first attack at a compound in North Waziristan.
Two U.S. drone strikes, the first in Pakistan this year, killed at least 16 militants on Wednesday, as Washington resumed the controversial program after a brazen Taliban attack on the Karachi International Airport earlier this week.
The timing of the strikes is bound to raise suspicions of coordination between the two countries after drone attacks were reportedly suspended in December at Islamabad’s request to give Pakistan space to pursue a peace process. Pressure has been mounting on the government to launch a ground offensive in Taliban-infested North Waziristan after a dramatic week that began with the all-night siege on Monday of Karachi’s Jinnah International Airport, in which 37 people, including the 10 attackers, were killed.
Those concerns were compounded by a follow-up attack on Tuesday, also claimed by the Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP), in which gunmen fired upon an airport checkpoint but failed to inflict any casualties and later escaped. Air Force jets took to the skies the same day, pounding suspected militant hideouts and leaving at least 25 dead.
The U.S. drone strikes took place within hours of each other, one late Wednesday and the second at the same site early Thursday, as militants gathered to dig out the bodies and search for the injured. The first struck a vehicle and a compound in the village of Dargah Mandi in North Waziristan, where almost 60,000 residents have fled since May fearing a long-rumored offensive.
An intelligence official in Miranshah said the missiles had struck a pick-up truck carrying about six militants and laden with explosives. “Four of them were Uzbeks and two were Punjabi Taliban,” he said.
The official said the militants had parked their pick-up truck against the outer wall of the compound—both of which were destroyed and remained ablaze. Another senior security official confirmed the strike and said authorities had intercepted a radio message talking about the drone attack.
“One of the militants was asking others to reach the site and search for any one injured in the strike and also to dig out the dead bodies,” he said.
The second strike came early Thursday. “Three U.S. drones fired six missiles on militants who had gathered to dig the debris of a compound,” said a local security official, referring to the compound destroyed in the earlier drone strike, and adding: “Missiles also hit two vehicles at the site.” Another security official confirmed the second strike, and said drones were still flying in the sky.
The last drone attack on Pakistani soil occurred on Dec. 25, 2013, killing three suspected militants. The strikes are officially denounced by Pakistan’s authorities as a violation of the country’s sovereignty, but leaked documents have shown intelligence coordination between the countries in the past.
More than 2,000 people have been killed in drone attacks since August 2008, according to an AFP tally, with critics charging that the strikes cause many civilian casualties.