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Anger In Pakistan At U.S. Plan To Increase Drone Attacks
03-19-2009 8:16 am - Saeed Shah and Ewen MacAskill - The Guardian
Pakistan reacted with anger Wednesday to an American proposal to expand its drone missile strikes inside the country against Taliban and al-Qaeda targets.
Pakistani politicians and officials described the idea of extending military operations into the vast, south-west province of Baluchistan as provocative and counterproductive, and warned of a severe backlash if the U.S. went ahead.

Sources in the U.S. administration confirmed that the White House has received recommendations from the military about an escalation in the use of the CIA's unmanned drones to launch missile attacks. At present, attacks are confined to the tribal areas in the northwest of the country.

The recommendation calls for a renewed focus on targets in the economically backward province which has provided a stronghold for the Afghan Taliban and a sanctuary for al-Qaeda elements. A source cautioned that President Obama has not made a decision and could decide any military gains from expansion into Baluchistan may be outweighed by the public backlash, putting at risk the Pakistan government.

There is a reluctance to go into Baluchistan and the U.S. hopes Pakistan's forces will fight the Taliban and al-Qaeda. The U.S. is to provide Pakistan's forces with increased military and civilian aid. The White House refused to comment on the possibility of using drones in Baluchistan.

The recommendation is part of a review of Afghanistan and Pakistan policy ordered by Barack Obama when he took over the White House in January.

The Washington Post reported on its website Wednesday night that another recommendation in the review is to send hundreds more U.S. civilians to Afghanistan to beef up reconstruction. They would be drawn from departments such as agriculture and justice, and reflect the desire to match the military effort with a civilian one.

There is a reluctance in the U.S. to start using the drones in Baluchistan, even though senior Taliban and al-Qaeda figures operate from bases there with impunity. The Afghan government says Mullah Muhammad Omar, the Taliban leader, is based in Quetta, the capital of Baluchistan.

Abdul Basit, a Pakistan foreign office spokesman, responding to disclosure of the plan in the New York Times, expressed opposition: "As we have been saying all along, we believe such attacks are counter-productive. They involve collateral damage and they are not helpful in our efforts to win hearts and minds."

The Pakistani government, which described the report as speculative, has denounced such attacks as undermining the country's sovereignty.

Munawar Hassan, secretary general of Jamaat-i-Islami, Pakistan's biggest mainstream religious party, said the US would be pouring petrol on an already incendiary situation. "The United States has no message of peace for the world, they can only talk through arms and armaments," he said.

There has been disappointment in Pakistan that Obama has continued to use drones for attacks, a policy he inherited from the Bush administration. While al-Qaeda operatives have been killed, innocent civilians have also died.

The US military regards the ability of Taliban and al-Qaeda forces to conduct operations from havens in Pakistan as one of its biggest problems in Afghanistan.

U.S. military recommendations also include the possibility of ground attacks by special forces in Baluchistan.

U.S. forces conducted their first known ground raid in Pakistan last September, causing uproar.

Quetta: Taliban Capital

Quetta is a frontier city about a three-hour drive from Kandahar in Afghanistan. During the British empire, it was a garrison and still has a large army cantonment. The provincial capital of Baluchistan, a vast, sparsely populated region, has since the 1980s become the home of tens of thousands of Afghan refugees, fleeing war in their home country. The ethnic Baluch are in a minority in the city, which is dominated by Pashtuns, the biggest ethnic group in Afghanistan, making it easy for Afghans to melt into Quetta. After 9/11, when the U.S. and allies invaded Afghanistan, it is said that the Taliban leadership shifted from Kandahar to Quetta. Most notoriously, the high altitude city of about one million people is home to the "Quetta shura", the Taliban's ruling council, which directs the insurgency across the border.

LIBERTYNEWS: You can read this article by Guardian correspondents Saeed Shah, reporting from Islamabad, Pakistan, and Ewen MacAskill, reporting from Washington, D.C., in context here:

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