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Second Drone Strike in Pakistan Suggests Freer Hand for U.S. Second Drone Strike in Pakistan Suggests Freer Hand for U.S.
(about 3 hours later)
PESHAWAR, Pakistan — Ending a five-month hiatus, the Central Intelligence Agency resumed its drone campaign in Pakistan with missile strikes on Wednesday and Thursday that killed at least 14 people in the tribal district of North Waziristan, Pakistani officials said. PESHAWAR, Pakistan — An American drone struck a militant compound in Pakistan’s tribal belt for the second time in 24 hours on Thursday, killing at least 10 suspected members of the feared Haqqani network, which held the American soldier Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl hostage for five years.
The second strike, on Thursday, killed 10 militants who officials said belonged to the feared Haqqani militant network. It came just hours after the first strike late Wednesday that killed four others, with both attacks aiming at a compound where a truck carrying explosives was located. Pakistani security officials said the C.I.A.-operated drone fired six missiles at the compound four miles north of Miram Shah, the main town in North Waziristan. The missiles struck a building and an explosives-laden truck parked outside, they said.
“Six missiles were fired in the second strike, hitting the same compound and an explosives-laden truck,” a senior security official said of the attack, which took place four miles north of Miram Shah, the main town in North Waziristan. Hours earlier, late Wednesday, an American attack on the same compound had killed at least four people. Initial reports from that attack described the dead as mostly ethnic Uzbek fighters, but the second strike appeared to have been aimed squarely at the Haqqani militants.
It was uncertain initially who had been killed in the strike. But a majority of the victims, by several accounts, were Uzbek fighters from the Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan — a Taliban-allied jihadi group that only hours earlier had boasted of its role in Sunday’s audacious assault on the Karachi airport, which led to at least 36 deaths, including the 10 attackers. The Haqqani group, headed by Sirajuddin Haqqani, has carried out numerous attacks on American and Afghan security forces, as well as hotels and embassies in Kabul, the Afghan capital. The group’s strength derives in part from its sanctuary in North Waziristan, where it is believed to have held Sergeant Bergdahl for much of his five years in captivity, until his release on May 31 in exchange for five Taliban commanders held at Guantánamo Bay.
Speaking from the tribal belt, another Pakistani official reported that the initial strike Wednesday resulted in five deaths — three Uzbeks and two members of the Haqqani network, a Taliban-allied faction that regularly attacks American and Afghan forces in Afghanistan and that until last month held the American soldier Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl hostage. Both Pakistani officials spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss intelligence details publicly. A C.I.A. official would not comment on the strike in Pakistan. The Wednesday and Thursday attacks marked an emphatic resumption of the American drone program in Pakistan’s tribal belt following a five-month hiatus. The last known C.I.A. strike inside Pakistan took place on Dec. 25.
A resident of Miram Shah said by telephone that the force of Wednesday’s attack rattled windows in the town. It was the first known C.I.A. drone strike inside Pakistan since Dec. 25, when missiles struck another compound near Miram Shah and killed at least three people. American drone strikes are deeply unpopular in Pakistan and meet with vehement criticism from the government, which on Thursday issued a pro forma statement that condemned both attacks as a “violation of Pakistan’s sovereignty and territorial integrity.”
Although the C.I.A. has never explained the subsequent pause, many Pakistani analysts believe it was to allow the Pakistani government a chance to negotiate with the Taliban. However, those talks have fallen apart amid a new wave of militant attacks and government airstrikes. But in private, some Pakistani officials say they quietly support drone strikes when they suit Pakistan’s perceived self-interest. On Thursday, Reuters quoted two unnamed Pakistani government officials who described the latest strikes as a “joint Pakistan-U.S. operation” that, they said, had the “express approval” of the Pakistani government.
Another factor may also be involved. On Sunday, James N. Mattis, the former leader of the United States Central Command, said on CNN that concern about Sergeant Bergdahl’s safety had weighed on any potential military strikes against the Haqqanis. That concern is now gone, he said, adding, “There’s also a freedom to operate against them that perhaps we didn’t fully enjoy.” “We understand that drones will be an important part of our fight against the Taliban now,” the news agency quoted one official as saying, in an unusually frank admission of Pakistani complicity in the drone program.
Within Pakistan, the country’s military and civilian leaders, prompted by public outrage over the Karachi assault, are contemplating a new offensive against the Taliban. The five-month lull in C.I.A. strikes coincided with a concerted effort by Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif’s government to draw the Pakistani Taliban into peace talks. But that effort has all but collapsed in recent weeks, undercut by tensions between Mr. Sharif and the military leadership and by a damaging leadership split in the Taliban ranks.
In the past week, the Pakistani military has conducted airstrikes against what it believes to be militant targets in North Waziristan, particularly in neighborhoods dominated by ethnic Uighur and Uzbek militants. Moreover, an audacious Taliban assault on the Karachi airport on Sunday, resulting in 36 deaths, bolstered public support for a military operation. In the days since, military officials have hinted that plans are underway for a major operation, mostly likely in Waziristan.
China, which is a significant economic and strategic ally for Pakistan, has pressured the government to crack down on the Uighurs, who are linked to an Islamist insurgency in the Xinjiang region of western China. The Pakistani Taliban presented the Karachi airport assault as a joint operation with the Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan, which has firmly established itself in the jihadi firmament of Waziristan since September 2011. Pakistani officials said that at least three Uzbek fighters died in the C.I.A. strike on Wednesday night.
The Uzbek militants, who fled to Pakistan after 2001, have become an integral part of the Taliban insurgency that, despite efforts to talk peace with the government in recent months, has continued to carry out bombings across the country. American calculations in the tribal belt have also changed following the release of Sergeant Bergdahl. American military officials in Washington have suggested that they previously employed restraint in attacking the Haqqani network in Waziristan because of concerns for the safety of the American soldier.
On Sunday, James N. Mattis, the former leader of the United States Central Command, said on CNN that that concern was now gone. “There’s also a freedom to operate against them that perhaps we didn’t fully enjoy,” he said.