Report: U.S. pressuring Pakistan to expand drone attacks

Report: U.S. pressuring Pakistan to expand drone attacks

2010-11-21 02:20:40 GMT+7 (ICT)

ISLAMABAD (BNO NEWS) -- The Obama administration is pressuring Pakistan to expand the areas where drones can conduct missile attacks against al Qaeda and the Pakistani Taliban, the Washington Post reported on Saturday.

According to the newspaper, the U.S. military wants to widen the area where drones are actively attacking militants to the south-western province of Baluchistan, but Pakistan has rejected the request.

According to U.S. officials, the Pakistani city of Quetta, the capital of the Baluchistan province, which shares a border with the Afghan provinces of Helmand and Kandahar, is the alleged base of the Taliban leadership.

"You expect us to open the skies for anything that you can fly," a top Pakistani intelligence official told the newspaper. He described the Quetta request as an affront to Pakistani sovereignty. "In which country can you do that?"

Recently, the U.S. stepped up air strikes against militants in Pakistan after intelligence reports suggested that a Taliban-sponsored plot to attack several European cities was underway.

Drone strikes in Pakistan have killed at least 1,200 people since August 2008, according to Pakistani officials.

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