U.S. intensifies anti-al Qaeda UAV campaign inside Pakistan

Published 28 March 2008

Pakistan’s inability — perhaps unwillingness — to confront al-Qaeda terrorists in the country’s Northwest Territories led the U.S. intelligence community to say that al-Qaeda now enjoys in areas of Pakistan the same freedom the organization enjoyed in pre-9/11 Afghanistan; in July 2007 we wrote that the day of U.S. unilateral UAV attacks on terrorists inside Pakistan was near — signaled by the deployment to Iraq of a UAV squadron; that day is here

Ten months ago, on 18 July 2007, we ran a story titled “Attack UAV squadron deployed to Iraq this week,” in which we reported that the first unmanned attack squadron in aviation history was about to be deployed in a theater of battle. During these ten month, the MQ-9 Reaper UAVs delivered 500-pound bombs and Hellfire missiles on the enemy — all from the safety of Creech Air Force base in Nevada.

The story was important in itself, but we highlighted another aspect of it, an aspect most, if not all, of those who wrote about it missed. The story’s subtitle read: “Pakistanis should note first-ever deployment of attack UAV squadron to Iraq this week.” In the body of the story, which was mostly about the UAVs deployment to Iraq, we wrote that sources told us that “the United States is going to increase its activities — mostly covert — to hunt down and kill terrorists operating inside Pakistan. Against this backdrop, we note that the first unmanned attack squadron in aviation history will arrive in Iraq this week.”

In yesterday’s Washington Post (27 March 2008), under the title “U.S. Steps Up Unilateral Strikes in Pakistan,” Robin Wright and Joby Warrick write that “The United States has escalated its unilateral strikes against al-Qaeda members and fighters operating in Pakistan’s tribal areas…. Over the past two months, U.S.-controlled Predator aircraft have struck at least three sites used by al-Qaeda operatives.” About forty-five Arab, Afghan, and other foreign fighters have been killed in the attacks. All three of the precision attacks against small clusters of Islamic militants were carried out by CIA-operated MQ-1B drones — pilotless, camera-equipped aircraft operated by remote control and armed with 100-pound Hellfire missiles.

We’ll keep you posted.