US Drone Strikes in Pakistan Kill 26 Over Five Days

Six Different Strikes Pound Waziristan, Kill 'Suspects'

The Obama Administration seems to be precipitously escalating the drone war against Pakistan’s tribal areas this week, and today launched yet another strike, killing three more unidentified people in North Waziristan.

This makes six different strikes across Waziristan in the past five days, killing 26 people overall. One was reportedly a “Uzbek commander,” but none had yet been publicly named by either US or Pakistani officials.

Pakistani intelligence officials have labeled every single person slain in the strikes as a “suspect,” but have offered no evidence backing up those claims. This strategy was common during the previous, Zardari-run government, which had secret deals with the US to back the drone strikes.

Yet Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif ran on a promise to end the drone strikes, and had been loudly critical of them in past months, to the point the strikes had virtually halted. The US seems to be escalating anew, but so far there is little indication that the Sharif government cares.

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.