ISLAMABAD: The Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) is using
Afghanistan’s Jalalabad and Bagaram airstrips to stage drone attacks
against militants in Pakistan’s border region, according to sources.
The United States has opted to shift its drone bases of operation from Pakistan to Afghanistan, sources told Arab News.
According
to the sources, the CIA, which has been using Shamsi Air Base in
Pakistan since 2004, had to develop other sources, largely based in
Afghanistan, to carry out its drone operations targeting al-Qaeda and
its affiliates that are allegedly using sanctuaries in the Federally
Administered Tribal Areas (FATA).
Pakistan had asked US to
vacate Shamsi Air Base shortly after the arrest of CIA operative
Raymond Davis, and since then the American spy agency is primarily
using Afghan soil to execute its drone operations, the sources said.
The
CIA is using two airstrips- one at Jalalabad Air Base and the other at
Bagaram Air Base in Afghanistan- to carry out its drone operations,
they added.
Pakistan defence minister Chaudhry Ahmed Mukhtar’s
remarks on Wednesday that the US had been asked to vacate Shamsi Air
Base was the latest salvo as the two countries tussle over their
interests in an Afghanistan settlement.
“We have been talking
to them (on the issue) for some time, but after May 2 [US raid on Osama
bin Laden’s lair in Abbottabad], we told them again,” Mukhtar told
reporters on Thursday. “When they (US forces) will not operate from
there (Shamsi Air Base), no drone attacks will be carried out. Online
