The remote-controlled war over Pakistan shows no sign of letting up: News reports say a missile fired by a U.S. drone struck a house in the Bannu district of North-West Frontier Province, killing five suspected militants.
According to the New York Times, the attack last night targeted the compound of a local militant commander, Taj Ali Khan, in the vicinity of Jani Khel; local sources and intelligence officials told the Times that two Arabs were killed in the strike. Bannu borders North Waziristan, usually described as a key transit route and safe haven for al Qaeda and Taliban. Five people were killed in a strike in the same area last November.
This is the sixth reported instance of a U.S. drone attack since President Barack Obama took office, and the second such attack within five days. Last Thursday, missiles fired by pilotless U.S. aircraft struck a militant hideout and training camp in the Kurram tribal agency, killing at least 14 people.
As Noah has observed here previously, what started out as an extension of the war against the Taliban in Afghanistan has morphed into something else entirely: A "don't ask, don't tell" bombing campaign over Pakistan. And the surge in drone strikes there has raised serious questions about larger U.S. goals. As influential counterinsurgency adviser David Kilcullen recently told DANGER ROOM, these kinds of strikes can be counterproductive -- and should only be used as a last resort.
"Sometimes we might have to [attack with drones] -- but only where larger interests (say, stopping another 9/11) are directly affected," he said. "We need to be extremely careful about undermining the longer-term objective -- a stable Pakistan, where elected politicians control their own national-security establishment, and extremism is diminishing -- for the sake of collecting scalps."
Meanwhile, militants managed to torch at least eight NATO supply trucks and damaged a dozen others in an assault on a convoy on the outskirts of Peshawar, capital of the North-West Frontier Province. The main land route to Afghanistan passes through Pakistan's lawless Khyber region; in recent months, militants have staged a series of dramatic attacks on NATO supply depots around Peshawar.
[PHOTO: U.S. Air Force]
__ALSO: __
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- Taliban: We Shot Down a U.S. Drone Over Pakistan
- Pakistanis Heart Drone Attacks, Survey Says
- Eight Dead in Latest Killer Drone Strike
- CIA Chief: Drone War Over Pakistan to Continue
- Pak Spies: Drones Destabilizing Qaeda - and Our Gov't
- Drone War Backlash Forces Covert Op Disclosure
- Google Earth Shows U.S. Drones at Pakistani Base?
- Pakistan Partners With U.S. on Killer Drone Strikes
- Drone War Escalates; 30 More Dead in Pakistan
- Pakistan Seethes After Killer Drone Disclosure
- Senator: U.S. Launches Drone War on Pakistan, From Pakistan
- Call Off Drone War, Influential U.S. Adviser Says
- Pakistan to U.S.: Stop the Drone Strikes (And More Weapons, Please)
- Drone War Continues; UAV Production Sky High
- Pakistan's Army Practices Drone Shoot-Downs
- U.S. Sharing Predator Video with Afghanistan, Pakistan
- 'Don't Ask, Don't Tell in Pakistan Drone War
- Robo-Planes New $100 Million Home in Afghanistan
- 10 More Dead as Drone War Over Pakistan Continues
- Pakistan to U.S.: Call Off the Killer Drones
- 20 Killed in Deadly U.S. Drone Strike
- New Twist in Downed Drone Mystery
- U.S. Denies Drone Down - Never Mind the Video
- Report: Pak Forces Fire on U.S. Troops; Drones Kill 50
- Heartbreak and One-Ton Bombs, in Afghanistan
