‘UK role in CIA’s Pakistan drone war causing worries’
The UK military is suspected of having participated in the US drone operations in Pakistan, which have killed thousands of people.
The British Ministry of Defense (Mod) has declined to give a clear explanation about its role in the CIA drone war in Pakistan, which has claimed thousands of lives.
The ministry says it can neither confirm nor deny its role, for the sake of international relations. However, it insists that Britain has never carried out its own drone missions in Pakistan.
An MoD spokesman has reportedly said, “UK personnel embedded with the US air force have only flown remotely piloted aircraft systems in support of operations in Afghanistan, Libya and Iraq.”
The MoD’s refusal to clarify appears at odds with comments made by defense secretary Michael Fallon, who has said that “if we are asked to give details” about UK personnel embedded with other countries “we, of course, do so,” according to the Guardian.
Now Shahid Qureshi, senior investigative journalist in London, says the UK is a big arms producer in the world and the industry will need wars to sustain itself.
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A few days ago, British Prime Minister David Cameron revealed that the UK military had killed two British nationals in a drone strike against Daesh in Syria. The operation sparked criticism as the attack was conducted without a parliamentary approval.
The RAF has long emphasized that its drones operate only in defined theaters of conflict, such as Afghanistan and Iraq, unlike the US which wages covert campaigns in Pakistan, Yemen and Somalia.
However, it has been confirmed that scores of UK personnel are based at the Creech airbase in Nevada, from where CIA drone missions are operated, the Guardian added. A handful of UK personnel are known to have been embedded with US teams, raising questions about who ultimately has authority over them.
Thousands of people have been killed in hundreds of drone strikes in Pakistan since 2004. Many of the victims turn out to be civilians, though the US says the aerial attacks target militants in the country.
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