'Dozens dead' in US drone strike
 Pakistan officially objects to the strikes by pilotless US aircraft |
At least 45 people have died in a missile strike by a US drone aircraft in a Taliban stronghold area of Pakistan, officials there have said.
The people killed in South Waziristan had been attending a funeral for others killed in a US drone strike earlier.
Intelligence officials said at least 45 people had been killed and dozens more injured in the later strike, when two missiles were fired.
But a local official told BBC News the death toll was more than 50.
The region is a stronghold of Pakistani Taliban leader Baitullah Mehsud.
Also on Tuesday, tribal leader Qari Zainuddin, who often criticised Mehsud, was shot dead by a gunman in north-western Pakistan.
Earlier this month, Zainuddin criticised Mehsud after an attack on a mosque, which killed 33 people.
The Pakistani army is preparing to launch an offensive against Taliban fighters under Mehsud's command, who are blamed for a number of deadly attacks.
But Zainuddin's killing is being seen as a setback for the government in its efforts to isolate Mehsud ahead of the security forces' next phase of their anti-Taliban offensive in the tribal areas bordering Afghanistan, says the BBC's Mike Wooldridge in Islamabad.
And, this indiscriminate killing of many including the innocent by the US using these drones is not the 1st of its kind, This may be the 6th such attack since Obama became President....
And since August 2008, there have been about 30 such attacks killing more than 320 human beings..The innocent persons dead will just be called 'collateral damage' - and that is it.At least 22 people in Pakistan, including suspected al-Qaeda fighters, have been killed in a missile attack thought to have been carried out by an unmanned US drone.
Security officials said the raid targeted a Taliban camp in northwest Pakistan on Thursday.
Two missiles fired by a drone hit the alleged camp in the tribal area of Kurram, one of seven semi-autonomous regions near Pakistan's border with Afghanistan.
A senior security official, speaking anonymously, said "the training centre was run by local Taliban commander Fazal Saeed and training was under way at the time of the strike".
The Taliban has sealed off the area and was retrieving bodies from the rubble of the building, officials said.
Kurram is a known hub for fighters loyal to Baitullah Mehsud, Pakistan's most wanted man, and Sirajuddin Haqqani, de facto commander of Taliban-aligned groups on the border.
Security officials had earlier said that at least seven fighters had been killed in the attack, including "foreigners" - using a term adopted to mean al-Qaeda operatives.
Repeated strikes
More than 30 such missile attacks have been carried out since August 2008, one month before Asif Ali Zardari was sworn into office as president of Pakistan, killing more than 320 people.
The US military does not confirm drone attacks, but it and the Central Intelligence Agency operating in Afghanistan are the only forces to deploy drones in the region.
It was the fifth missile attack blamed on unmanned US aircraft since Barack Obama, the US president, came to power, dashing the Pakistani public's hopes that the new administration would abandon the policy.
Obama says fighters in Pakistan and Afghanistan, where US troops are battling the Taliban, pose a grave threat.
Islamabad has repeatedly protested to Washington that drones violate its territorial sovereignty and deepen resentment among the 160 million people of the nuclear-armed Islamic nation. - Al-Jazeera, 14/3/2009, Deaths in Pakistan drone strike
Obama's hypocrisy must be exposed. He was so 'sad' about that young Iranian women who allegedly died by reason of a gun-shot wound..[I have my doubts here because US have used false images/stories before to support its cause] - but I have yet to see him express any apologies and condolences for US's killings of innocent. Let's see what Obama's reaction would be to this killing...
Obama 'outraged'
In his latest remarks on the unrest, Barack Obama, the US president, condemned as "unjust" the Iranian government's treatment of protesters.
Obama said the international community was "appalled and outraged" by what he said were the "threats, beatings, and imprisonments" of demonstrators.
"I have made it clear that the United States respects the sovereignty of the Islamic Republic of Iran, and is not interfering in Iran's affairs,'' he said during a news conference at the White House on Tuesday.
"But we must also bear witness to the courage and dignity of the Iranian people, and to a remarkable opening within Iranian society. And we deplore violence against innocent civilians anywhere that it takes place.''
Protesters have demanded the Iranian government re-run June 12 election that saw an overwhelming victory for Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, the incumbent president.
At least 19 people have been killed in post-election clashes across Iran between protesters and riot police and paramilitaries. - Al-Jazeerah, 24/6/2009, Iran's Mousavi calls new protest
"we reject the same thing that people of all faiths reject: the killing of innocent men, women, and children"
ReplyDelete"The Holy Koran teaches that whoever kills an innocent, it is as if he has killed all mankind;"
Guess who's speech that I quoted :)
But most importantly, to whom the speech is addressed.
Obama is a bigger hypocrite that you think. He hasnt repealed the Patriot Act, he still continues the practice of Rendition (kidnapping people and torturing them), wiretapping, trumping up false charges and evidence against its people. I can go on, but theres just not enough space.
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