U.S. drone believed crashed in Pakistan
source: http://www.newsdaily.com/stories/tre526178-us-pakistan-usa/
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U.S. drones, or unmanned aerial vehicles (UAV), routinely fly over northwest Pakistani regions on the Afghan border seeking Islamist militants and sometimes firing missiles at them.
"The Americans have told us one of their UAVs is missing and presumed crashed in the Angor Adda area of South Waziristan," said a Pakistani military official, who declined to be identified. "We are trying to search for the wreckage."
Intelligence officials in South Waziristan, a militant haven on the Afghan border, said they had reports of a drone crashing in the Angor Adda region just inside Pakistan.
A Pakistani spokesman said he had no information about the missing drone but the military was checking the report.
U.S. drones have carried out more than 30 missile attacks on suspected militants over the past year, according to a Reuters tally, more than half since the beginning of September.
About 300 people have been killed, most of them militants including several mid-level al Qaeda members, and some civilians, according to Pakistani security officials and residents.
But Pakistan objects to the U.S. drone flights over its territory and their missile strikes on militant targets.
Pakistan says the missile strikes are not only a violation of its sovereignty but are counterproductive and have fanned an Islamist insurgency across its northwest.
There have been four drone attacks in Pakistan since U.S. President Barack Obama took office in January, indicating no change in policy since the last year of the Bush administration, when drone attacks on Pakistani soil multiplied.
The Pakistani military said in September it had recovered a small, surveillance drone that crashed in South Waziristan but the Pentagon denied any U.S. drone had been lost in the area.
(Additional reporting by Augustine Anthony; Writing by Robert Birsel; Editing by Angus MacSwan)
"The Americans have told us one of their UAVs is missing and presumed crashed in the Angor Adda area of South Waziristan," said a Pakistani military official, who declined to be identified. "We are trying to search for the wreckage."
Intelligence officials in South Waziristan, a militant haven on the Afghan border, said they had reports of a drone crashing in the Angor Adda region just inside Pakistan.
A Pakistani spokesman said he had no information about the missing drone but the military was checking the report.
U.S. drones have carried out more than 30 missile attacks on suspected militants over the past year, according to a Reuters tally, more than half since the beginning of September.
About 300 people have been killed, most of them militants including several mid-level al Qaeda members, and some civilians, according to Pakistani security officials and residents.
But Pakistan objects to the U.S. drone flights over its territory and their missile strikes on militant targets.
Pakistan says the missile strikes are not only a violation of its sovereignty but are counterproductive and have fanned an Islamist insurgency across its northwest.
There have been four drone attacks in Pakistan since U.S. President Barack Obama took office in January, indicating no change in policy since the last year of the Bush administration, when drone attacks on Pakistani soil multiplied.
The Pakistani military said in September it had recovered a small, surveillance drone that crashed in South Waziristan but the Pentagon denied any U.S. drone had been lost in the area.
(Additional reporting by Augustine Anthony; Writing by Robert Birsel; Editing by Angus MacSwan)
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