Editorial: US Drone Strikes Resume in Pakistan for the First Time in Six Months

By Akhilesh Pillalamarri

Following a six month hiatus, U.S. drone strikes have resumed in Pakistan.

For the first time in nearly six months, United States drones have struck targets within Pakistan. In response to the recent attacks against Jinnah International Airport in Karachi, U.S. drones struck Pakistan twice within 12 hours, killing at least 13 individuals.

U.S. drones struck first at a facility in North Waziristan, killing three people, while later on Thursday, three more missiles, fired on a militant compound and vehicle in the town of Ghulam Khan, killed 10 people.

The strikes are widely believed to be the nail in the coffin for Pakistan Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif’s attempt to talk with the Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP, or simply the Pakistani Taliban). Already under pressure by the Pakistani military to abandon talks and resort to force, Sharif seems to have come around to a military solution after the Karachi attacks, either being convinced or coerced by the military to do so. The resumption of U.S. drone strikes also demonstrates that American indulgence of Sharif’s attempts at negotiations seems to have ended.  Negotiations were unlikely to be successful in any case as the TTP aims to establish a new order rather than seeking a place in the existing Pakistani system.

Pakistan may have given the United States express approval for the strikes, according to two top Pakistani officials, in what may have been the first time Pakistan openly admitted to such cooperation. However, domestic news reports in Pakistan offered conflicting reports on whether this was true and the Pakistani government condemned the strikes as a matter of course, perhaps to save face. 

Read the full story at The Diplomat