President Barack Obama confirmed that US drone aircraft have struck
Taliban and Al-Qaeda targets within Pakistan -- operations that until
now had not been officially acknowledged.
When asked about the use
of drones by his administration in a chat with web users on Google+ and
YouTube, Obama said "a lot of these strikes have been in the FATA" --
Pakistan's Federally Administered Tribal Areas.
"For the most
part, they've been very precise precision strikes against Al-Qaeda and
their affiliates, and we're very careful in terms of how it's been
applied," Obama said.
"This is a targeted focused effort at people
who are on a list of active terrorists, who are trying to go in and
harm Americans, hit American facilities, American bases, and so on."
Explaining
that many strikes were carried out "on Al-Qaeda operatives in places
where the capacities of that military in that country may not be able to
get them," Obama confirmed that Pakistan's lawless tribal zone was a
target.
"So, obviously, a lot of these strikes have been in the
FATA, and going after Al-Qaeda suspects who are up in very tough terrain
along the border between Afghanistan and Pakistan," he said.
"For
us to be able to get them in another way would involve probably a lot
more intrusive military action than the ones we're already engaging in."
US
officials say Pakistan's tribal belt provides sanctuary to Taliban
fighting for 10 years in Afghanistan, Al-Qaeda groups plotting attacks
on the West, Pakistani Taliban who routinely bomb Pakistan and other
foreign fighters.
Sixty-four US missile strikes were reported in
Pakistan's semi-autonomous tribal belt last year, down from 101 reported
in 2010, according to AFP tallies.
According to the New America
Foundation, a nonpartisan think tank in Washington, drone strikes in
Pakistan over the past eight years have killed at least 1,715 people,
and as many as 2,680 people.
The United States had until now
refused to discuss the strikes publicly, but the program has
dramatically increased as the Obama administration looks to withdraw all
foreign combat troops from Afghanistan by the end of 2014.
In
October, US Defense Secretary Leon Panetta acknowledged the CIA's drone
program, but did not specifically indicate they were used in Pakistan.
When
asked by AFP if Obama's remarks signaled a change in US policy about
the drone program, a White House spokesman refused to comment.
The
Pakistani government is understood to agree to the program despite
popular opposition at home. Drones have reportedly killed dozens of
Al-Qaeda and Taliban operatives and hundreds of low-ranking fighters
since 2004.
But the missile strikes fuel widespread anti-American
resentment, which is running especially high in Pakistan since US air
strikes inadvertently killed 24 Pakistani soldiers in November.
A
US-NATO investigation blamed the deaths on a litany of errors and
botched communications on both sides. But Pakistan rejected the
findings, insisting the strikes had been deliberate.
Obama said
drones had "not caused a huge number of civilian casualties" and that it
was "important for everybody to understand that this thing is kept on a
very tight leash."
Islamabad is now reviewing its entire alliance
with the United States and has kept its Afghan border closed to NATO
supply convoys for two months.
It ordered US personnel to leave
Shamsi air base in western Pakistan, widely believed to have been a hub
for the CIA drone program, and is thought likely to only reopen the
Afghan border by exacting taxes on convoys.
The State Department
said Monday it had used small, unarmed surveillance drones to protect US
diplomats in so-called "critical threat environments" overseas.
The
news emerged after The New York Times reported that Iraqi officials
have expressed outrage at US use of a small fleet of drones to help
protect the embassy, consulates and American personnel in Iraq.
"The
State Department has always used a wide variety of security tools and
techniques and procedures to ensure the safety of our personnel and our
facilities," spokeswoman Victoria Nuland said.
"We do have an
unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) program used by the State Department," she
said, adding the UAVs are "tiny" and "not capable of being armed" but
designed to provide pictures of US government facilities. AFP
