The United States keeps targeting
Pakistani tribal areas with its deadly drone strikes to "send a deliberate
message" to Islamabad declaring its presence in the volatile region, says
Liaquat Ali Khan, author and professor of Law
in Washburn University in Kansas.
Thursday's U.S. drone attacks in North Waziristan which killed at
least 41 people loyal to Islamabad "was not a mistake at all," Ali Khan said in
an exclusive interview with Press TV's U.S. Desk on Friday.
"This happened right after Raymond Davis, who is
a CIA contractor, was released," he said.
He further added, "This was very ironic but at the same time I think
the U.S. wants to send a message that we are still going to use these drone
attacks in the tribal areas."
"So this was a very, deliberate message to the
Pakistani government that even though you have been able to obtain money for the
killing that Davis did, we are not going to give up the drone attacks," Ali Khan
concluded.
The U.S. drone attacks came to a halt after Davis was arrested in
Lahore for gunning down two Pakistanis back in January, an occurrence that has
drawn suspicion about his involvement in the operations.
The United States has been identified as the world's No. 1 user of
targeted killings -- largely as a result of its dependence on unmanned drone
attacks in Pakistan and Afghanistan. CNN The United States does not confirm drone attacks in the border areas
between Pakistan and Afghanistan, but its military and the CIA operating in
Afghanistan are the only forces that deploy the unmanned aircraft in the region.
Daily Times President Barack Obama ordered his first drone strike against
Pakistan just 72 hours after being sworn in as president. CBS News U.S. drone attacks recorded an overall 134 percent increase in 2010
compared with the 2009's figures, jumping from 53 strikes in 2009 to 124 attacks
in 2010. Forgottendiaries A report by the Brookings Institution also brought the issue of
controversial drone attacks under harsher scrutiny, saying the illegal strikes
have claimed the lives of 10 civilians for every militant killed in tribal areas
bordering Afghanistan. According to Pakistani sources, the U.S. drone strikes kill some 50
civilians for every militant killed, a hit rate of 2 percent. NY Times
SAR/HJ/SM
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