U.S. Drone Strike Kills 6 in Pakistan, Fueling Anger.

U.S. Drone Strike Kills 6 in Pakistan, Fueling Anger.

US drones have fired missiles into inaccessible border
 areas such as North Waziristan since 2004 [Reuters]

ISLAMABAD | Pakistan | 06 Sep 2013 :: At least six people were killed in an American drone strike in Pakistan’s restive northwestern tribal areas early Friday, according to government officials and local news reports.

The strike was directed at a house in the Ghulam Khan area of the North Waziristan tribal region, close to the border with Afghanistan.

A senior Haqqani network commander was killed, a security official said. The official, who requested anonymity because he was not authorized to speak to the media, said that the ranking Haqqani official in the region, Sangin Zadran, had been killed. “He was the most influential commander in the area,” the official said. “The Americans had been after him for a long time.”

North Waziristan has long been a haven for Taliban and Qaeda militants.

American drone strikes are deeply unpopular in Pakistan, and opposition to them has become an essential staple of local politics and grievances against the United States. Pakistani politicians and government officials condemn the missile strikes, which are directed by the Central Intelligence Agency, as a violation of the country’s sovereignty.

Opposition politicians like Imran Khan, leader of the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf political party, have campaigned against the strikes, saying that they result more in civilian casualties than militant killings. In October 2012, Mr. Khan led a big protest rally to the edges of the tribal regions against the use of drones on Pakistani soil.

The number of drone strikes has, however, dropped sharply in recent months. The last strike occurred on Aug. 31, when at least four suspected militants were killed in an attack in North Waziristan.(Courtesy:New york times)Read More>>>

Pakistan Taliban faction claims attack on ISI office.

Pakistan Taliban faction claims attack on ISI office.

Karachi | 25 Jul 2013 ::  The Jundullah faction of the banned Pakistani Taliban today claimed responsibility for the suicide attack on an ISI office in Sindh province, saying it was carried out to avenge the killing of commander Waliur Rehman in a US drone strike.

In a statement sent to TV news channels, Jundullah spokesman Ahmed Marwat said, "We sent four suicide bombers and our target was the ISI."

"It was revenge for the killing of Waliur Rehman," he said, referring to the killing of the senior Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan commander in a drone strike earlier this year.

The statement blamed the Pakistan government of working with US forces. Marwat said the militants would continue attacking security forces for targeting the rebels.

"These (intelligence officials) are friends of the US and until they refrain from their coalition with the US, we will continue to target them," he said.

Five persons, including a Deputy Director of the Inter-Services Intelligence agency, were killed when a group of suicide attackers stormed a high-security compound in Sukkur yesterday.

Five terrorists also died during the attack, officials said.

The compound housed offices of the ISI, Military Intelligence, Pakistan Rangers and police.

Militants have targeted ISI offices in Punjab and Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa provinces in the past. Dozens of people have died in attacks on ISI offices in Lahore, Multan, Faisalabad and Peshawar in recent years.(Courtesy:NDTV)

Al-Qaeda says No. 2 in Yemen killed in US drone strike.

Saudi-born Saeed al-Shihri, a former detainee at Guantanamo, killed on unspecified date, according to terrorist website

An American MQ-9 Predator drone (illustrative
 photo: CC BY AN HONORABLE GERMAN, Flickr)

SANAA | Yemen | AP | 17 Jul 2013 ::   The Yemen-based branch of al-Qaeda says a US drone strike has killed a former Guantanamo Bay prisoner who rose to become the group’s No. 2 figure.

The announcement, posted on militant websites, gave no date for the death of Saudi-born Saeed al-ShihriIn January, Yemen’s official SABA news agency had reported that al-Shihri died of wounds from a drone strike three months earlier.

The monitoring group SITE said Wednesday that al-Shihri was eulogized in the video by a senior official in the terrorist group, known as Al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula.

Al-Shihri, also known as Abu Sufyan al-Azdi, fought in Afghanistan and spent six years in Guantanamo. He was returned to Saudi Arabia in late 2007 and later fled to Yemen to join the al-Qaeda branch there.(Courtesy:The Times of Israel)