2006.10.31: October 31, 2006: Headlines: COS - Morocco: Journalism: COS - Pakistan: Terrorism: Newsday: James Rupert writes: Residents linking U.S. to deadly attack in Pakistan that killed an estimated 80 people in a religious school near the Afghan border
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2006.10.31: October 31, 2006: Headlines: COS - Morocco: Journalism: COS - Pakistan: Terrorism: Newsday: James Rupert writes: Residents linking U.S. to deadly attack in Pakistan that killed an estimated 80 people in a religious school near the Afghan border
James Rupert writes: Residents link U.S. to deadly attack in Pakistan that killed an estimated 80 people in a religious school near the Afghan border
The reported sightings of drones by at least five residents quoted by four local reporters suggests a direct role in the assault by the Central Intelligence Agency, which in the past has operated drones equipped with Hellfire missiles. A State Department spokesman, asked if the United States fired the missiles, said he could not comment on intelligence matters. A CIA spokesman declined to comment. Pakistani officials said the attack was conducted entirely by Pakistani forces, but they barred journalists from entering the area to investigate. Journalist James Rupert, head of Newsday's international bureau in Islamabad, Pakistan began his career abroad as a Peace Corps volunteer, teaching mechanics and welding in Morocco.
James Rupert writes: Residents link U.S. to deadly attack in Pakistan that killed an estimated 80 people in a religious school near the Afghan border
Residents linking U.S. to deadly attack in Pakistan
BY JAMES RUPERT
Newsday Staff Correspondent
October 31, 2006
Caption: Activists of Pakistan Tehrik-e-Insaf (PTI) chant anti-government slogans during a protest in Peshawar November 1, 2006. The activists condemned an army attack on a religious school in the Chenagai area of the Bajaur tribal region bordering Afghanistan. Islamist politicians said the attack on the school was carried out by a U.S. Predator drone aircraft, but Pakistan's military spokesman and a U.S. spokesman in Kabul denied it. REUTERS/Ali Imam (PAKISTAN)
ISLAMABAD, Pakistan -- A day after Pakistan's deadliest attack of the "global war on terror," residents say that U.S. surveillance drones fired at least some of the missiles that killed an estimated 80 people in a religious school near the Afghan border.
The reported sightings of drones by at least five residents quoted by four local reporters suggests a direct role in the assault by the Central Intelligence Agency, which in the past has operated drones equipped with Hellfire missiles. A State Department spokesman, asked if the United States fired the missiles, said he could not comment on intelligence matters. A CIA spokesman declined to comment.
Pakistani officials said the attack was conducted entirely by Pakistani forces, but they barred journalists from entering the area to investigate.
Caption: Armed Pakistani law enforcement officials inspect corpses in Khar. Radical Islamic leaders in Pakistan called for mass protests after around 80 people died in an airstrike on a suspected Al-Qaeda-linked training camp at a religious school(AFP)
Thousands of Pakistanis protested the missile strike in several rallies Tuesday. Speakers declared it was a U.S. attack, with Pakistan participating in the operation in order to hide the Americans' role. A member of Pakistan's parliament who lives nearby said the missiles that destroyed the madrassa in the village of Chingai were fired by a slow-flying surveillance drone that had been circling over the area. Pakistani helicopters arrived about 15 minutes after the main missile strike and fired a number of smaller rockets before leaving, MP Sahibzada Rashid told the newspaper Dawn. His account was paralleled by other residents, Bajaur-based reporters told Newsday.
The attack appeared to have scuttled a peace deal that some Pakistani officials had been negotiating with Bajaur-based militants, including a senior leader killed in the attack. Militants declared Tuesday they had been betrayed by the government and vowed in rallies to launch a holy war in retaliation.
The talks resembled recent Pakistani peace deals with the Taliban movement in Waziristan, a Pakistani region farther south along the border with Afghanistan. "The day before the attack, the political agent [the government's appointed representative in Bajaur] was telling us confidently the deal was ready," said Salim Khan, one of several part-time reporters based in Bajaur who are the only journalists permitted access to the district.
CIA Predator drones fitted with Hellfire missiles have been used in previous attacks against al-Qaida targets in Pakistan's border region. The government of President Pervez Musharraf was hammered by protests in January after a missile strike by at least one Predator killed 13 Pakistanis only a few miles from the site of Monday's attack.
While Musharraf cooperates with the U.S. hunt for al-Qaida figures in Pakistan, any visible U.S. role on its territory is a political liability for him, and his government has made strenuous efforts to hide the missile strikes.
In November, Musharraf's spokesman, Maj. Gen. Shaukat Sultan, tried to portray a U.S. missile attack in Waziristan as an accidental explosion by al-Qaida bomb-makers. After a Pakistani reporter exposed the lie by publishing photos of U.S. missile parts, he was kidnapped and later killed. Tuesday, Sultan denied any participation in the latest attack, telling the Associated Press that the American role was limited to routine intelligence-sharing. Soon after, he re-contacted the AP to say he could not confirm the United States had provided information in the attack.
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Story Source: Newsday
This story has been posted in the following forums: : Headlines; COS - Morocco; Journalism; COS - Pakistan; Terrorism
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