US-Pakistan Drone Attacks Success
By Aamir Latif, IOL Correspondent
“There has been an enhancing and extensive intelligence sharing between the two sides, which has yielded very positive results during last few months,” said Sehgal.
ISLAMABAD – The successful US drone attacks that killed several high-profile Taliban and Qaeda leaders in Pakistan’s tribal belt in recent weeks signals enhanced intelligence cooperation between Islamabad and Washington, analysts believe. “American and Pakistani agencies have come to know that they cannot operate or achieve the desired results without helping and sharing with each other,” Ikram Sehgal, a Karachi-based senior defense and security analyst, told IslamOnline.net.
“And when they did that (intelligence sharing), the results are evident.”
The US has launched several successful drone attacks in recent weeks, killing a number of high-profile Taliban leaders.
Baitullah Mehsud, the leader of Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan, the umbrella of Taliban groups in Pakistan’s tribal belt, was killed in a US drone in South Waziristan in August.
Kalimullah Mehsud, a brother of new Taliban leader Hakimullah Mehsud, was also killed in a US drone attack on Thursday.
A day later, Uzbek militant commander Tahir Yaldashev, who is dubbed as Bin Laden of Central Asia, was also reported dead in a US missile strike in northwest Pakistan.
“Indeed, there has been an enhancing and extensive intelligence sharing between the two sides, which has yielded very positive results during last few months,” said Sehgal.
US drones launch regular attacks in Pakistan’s tribal belt to hunt down Taliban and Qaeda leaders since the 2001 invasion of Afghanistan.
But the attacks, which were launched based on information gathered by local tribesmen, killed hundreds of civilians and only a few Taliban leaders.
“There had been a collectoral damage in the wake of drone attacks till a few months back,” said Sehgal.
“Only one out ten attacks was proved successful, but now ten out of ten. This is not possible without Pakistani finger on trigger.
“This is the result of an increasing intelligence sharing between Pakistani and US intelligence agencies, that those Taliban and Al-Qaeda commanders, who had been dogging the security forces for last various years, are being killed.”
CIA Tribesmen
But some analysts believe the successful drone attacks are the result of the major intelligence network set up by the CIA in Afghanistan.
“This is not the result of any enhancing intelligence sharing between the two sides, but the outcome of a huge intelligence network set up by CIA in Afghan provinces of Paktia, Paktika and Khost (which touch north and south Waziristan),” Hamid Mir, an Islamabad-based security expert, told IOL.
Mir said Mehsud’s killing was the result of a tip-off provided by a close aide to the Taliban leader, not the Pakistani intelligence agencies.
“There was no information provided by our agencies to US in this regard,” he said.
“In fact, Pakistani intelligence agencies had no idea about the whereabouts of Mehsud.”
Mir cited the death penalty slapped on Mehsud’s second father-in-law Ikramullah by a Taliban court to prove his point.
“My credible sources, both within Taliban and intelligence agencies, have confirmed that Ikramullah was the man, who had actually planted the chip to indicate Mehsud’s presence to the drone,” he said.
Ikramullah has not so far been executed as Taliban are still looking for others involved in Mehsud’s killing, Mir said.
He said the Taliban leader remained alive for five to six days after the drone attack and he himself informed his lieutenants about Ikramullah’s treachery.
“He had left the residence of his father-in-law, when he doubted absence of Ikramullah, who had invited him to his residence but immediately disappeared,” he said.
“Mehsud took ****ter in a nearby house, but the roof of the room he was hiding caved in due to massive blast of missiles fired by the drone.”
Mir says that the CIA has been recruiting Pakistani tribesmen who migrated to Paktia, Paktika, and Khost provinces from the violence-wracked tribal belt.
“The CIA has launched hundreds of these tribesmen in south and north Waziristan, and is paying them huge amounts for their services,” he said.
Mir said the information provided by those recruited tribesman help render a success to the US drone attacks in the tribal area.
“There is no effective Pakistani intelligence system in these areas.”
US-Pakistan Drone Attacks Success
