Pakistan militants shoot down drone: officials
1 day ago
MIRANSHAH, Pakistan (AFP) — Taliban militants on Saturday shot down a suspected drone aircraft in a Pakistani tribal area bordering Afghanistan, officials said.
Residents and a local police official said two drones were flying low over a village in the South Waziristan tribal district when one of them was hit by militant fire. “We heard the firing by Taliban and then a drone fell down,” tribal police official Israr Khan told AFP.
Another security official said the drone crashed in a forest near a Pakistani border post. “Apparently a drone has crashed in the nearby forest, we are searching for its wreckage,” a security official told AFP.
The US military – which has been suspected of carrying out attacks by unmanned aircraft in the region – denied it had lost a drone on Saturday.
Pakistan’s chief military spokesman said the reports of a drone crash were being investigated.
“We have come to know that something has happened there, but we do not have any confirmation,” Major General Athar Abbas told AFP in Islamabad.
“We are further investigating and trying to find out.”
In Washington, Major Marie Boughen, a spokeswoman for US Central Command (Centcom), said: “As far as Centcom goes, all of our drones have been accounted for. So it’s not ours, if there is one that was shot down.”
Lieutenant Colonel Todd Vician, a Pentagon spokesman, said he had heard of no such reports, adding that “the Taliban make specious claims all the time.”
More than two dozen missile strikes have been carried out since August 2008, killing more than 200 people, most of them militants.
In January a US drone attack in South Waziristan killed the head of Al-Qaeda operations in Pakistan, Kenyan national Usama al-Kini, and his lieutenant, Sheikh Ahmed Salim Swedan.
Another US drone attack in November killed Rashid Rauf, the alleged Al-Qaeda mastermind of a 2006 transatlantic airplane bombing plot, as well as an Egyptian Al-Qaeda operative, security officials have said.
The strikes, which are not usually confirmed by the US military, have continued since US President Barack Obama took office on January 20. Since then, Pakistani territory has been struck at least four times by suspected US missile strikes.
One strike, on February 16, destroyed an Afghan Taliban camp and killed 26 in Pakistan’s northwest tribal area of Kurram.
In another, at least eight militants were killed on March 1, in a missile strike which destroyed a Taliban hide-out in South Waziristan.
While the Pakistani government has pledged support for the US fight against terrorist threats, the strikes have fuelled anti-American sentiments in Pakistan and particularly in the tribal belt, where Washington says Al-Qaeda and Taliban operate from sanctuaries.
Shot down or technical glitch? One crashed last year too i believe. Having said that, i do believe it could have been shot down and drones are not invincible…
Shot down or technical glitch? One crashed last year too i believe. Having said that, i do believe it could have been shot down and drones are not invincible...
share your thoughts
How low drones fly? At what speed do they fly? Anti-aircraft guns are a "real" thing and have been used, I don't think drone is a 'super-plane' in this regard but what matters is how low do they fly and if Taliban still have anti-aircraft weaponry.
Afghanistan War Not Going Well, President Tells New York Times; New Strategy Sought
“But you’ve seen conditions deteriorate over the last couple of years. The Taliban is bolder than it was. I think … in the southern regions of the country, you’re seeing them attack in ways that we have not seen previously,” Obama said in the interview, which was posted Saturday on the Times’ Web site.
Isn't it funny how excited some of us get over the downing of an UNMANNED drone. Can't get Americans, so get their flying robots. Talib mentality to the max.
Obama is still fighting counter insurgency, he should go in like pak army did in bajaur and level everything that stands.
Isn't it funny how excited some of us get over the downing of an UNMANNED drone. Can't get Americans, so get their flying robots. Talib mentality to the max.
I am sure you know about drone that though these are "unmanned" but there is always "men" behind their control.
I am sure you know about drone that though these are "unmanned" but there is always "men" behind their control.
Men sitting in AC room in Nevada, lol. They'll probably go have a beer after their tragic "loss" and come back the next day with another drone and kill 50 talibs.
I’m not suggesting Talibans as “warriors”, just wanted to say that the drone is not merely a robot. A drone is not cheap too. For Talib’s celebration, its like celebrating ‘one down more to go’. But that capability is dangerous for Pakistan unless both Pak and US are going to let Taliban come back to power in Afghanistan as indicated by yet another news article today.
Isn't it funny how excited some of us get over the downing of an UNMANNED drone. Can't get Americans, so get their flying robots. Talib mentality to the max.
Obama is still fighting counter insurgency, he should go in like pak army did in bajaur and level everything that stands.
President Obama seems to be pretty excited, hes already called for 'help' from some of the Taliban because hes admitting the war is going from bad to worse.