A FRESH wave of lethal drone strikes in Pakistan’s tribal region has taken the number of attacks sanctioned by US president Barack Obama past 100, representing a significant surge during the past two years.
Activists in Pakistan said they were deeply disappointed that the 2009 Nobel Peace Prize winner had escalated the use of CIA drones against Taliban and al-Qaeda militants.
Zeeshan-ul-Hassan Usmani, who monitors reported attacks for the Pakistan Body Count website, said: “If you thought Barack Obama was going to be a different sort of president, well, he’s doing what George Bush was doing, and worse. And it is we Pakistanis who are paying the price.”
The drones are used to target suspected militants in their mountain hideouts in Pakistan and are viewed as a powerful weapon by the US.
There have been notable successes, including the killing of Taliban militant leader Baitullah Mehsud last August, as well as several targets described as “senior al-Qaeda leaders”.
However, their use is hugely controversial in Pakistan, where American operations are viewed with deep suspicion.
Last month Philip Alston, UN special rapporteur on extrajudicial killings, said the CIA’s unaccountable use of drones was at risk of being classed as a war crime.
The growing concerns have not stemmed the attacks, however.
Four drone strikes at the weekend take the total to 101 since Mr Obama came to power 18 months ago, compared with 45 in the preceding five years, according to statistics compiled by the New America Foundation.
As many as 1,100 people have been killed in that period.
Ali Dayan Hasan, of Human Rights Watch, said the US had been able to expand its use of drones because the Pakistan military had begun sharing intelligence. “Part of it is an understanding that any option to use large numbers of ground forces is impossible, and part of it is that they can do it without any oversight or accountability. That is the part I have a problem with.”
US officials will not comment on the use of drones by the CIA in Pakistan. However, during a visit earlier this year, Senator John McCain played down fears that the strikes increased opposition to the US. “We believe that, as I have stated and as our government has stated, that it is one of many tools that we must use to try to defeat a very determined and terrible enemy,” he said.