US-Pakistan Tensions Rise as Drone Strikes Pound Tribal Areas

US Kills 10 in Latest North Waziristan Attack

Last weekend’s attempts to open the Pakistan-Afghanistan border failed, and US-Pakistan relations are taking another turn for the worse as the US has launched a flurry of new drone strikes against the North Waziristan tribal area.

Fresh off of yesterday’s strike near Miramshah, which reportedly killed as many as 10 people, a new strike has pounded a village just outside of Mir Ali, killing 10 more “suspects.” Today’s strike also damaged a local mosque.

Pakistani Foreign Office spokesman Moazzam Ali Khan slammed the strikes, saying that they are a violation of Pakistan’s “territorial integrity” and “in contravention of international law. They are illegal, counter productive and totally unacceptable.”

The US has shrugged off repeated complaints about the drone strikes, but is issuing its own condemnations centering around Pakistan’s conviction of a doctor for treason, related to his role in a CIA operation that pretended to immunize Pakistani children but instead collected their DNA to screen for possible terrorist relatives. US officials argue that since the plan ended with the death of Osama bin Laden, the sentence is unfair.

Author: Jason Ditz

Jason Ditz is Senior Editor for Antiwar.com. He has 20 years of experience in foreign policy research and his work has appeared in The American Conservative, Responsible Statecraft, Forbes, Toronto Star, Minneapolis Star-Tribune, Providence Journal, Washington Times, and the Detroit Free Press.