Nine people were killed Friday night when a suspected U.S. drone struck in Pakistan's North Waziristan near the border with Afghanistan, two local officials said.
The dead consisted of two children, two women and five men, Pakistani intelligence and administrative officials said.
The U.S. military routinely offers no comment on reported drone attacks. However, it is the only country operating in the region known to have the ability to launch missiles from drones, which are controlled remotely.
– CNN's Samson Desta contributed to this report.
© 2012 Cable News Network. Turner Broadcasting System, Inc. All Rights Reserved.
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don't assess the merit of drone tactic by an isolated incident. the uav strategy as a whole is extremely successful and effective, having the least amount of damage. it's never good to kill innocent people, but that's part of the cost of war. if we send our marines there, there will be higher casualty. would you rather risk the life of a company of marines? or the innocent lives of pakistani who were used as human shield by the terrorists? i say i rather they save the lives of american soldiers, simply because high us casualty will lead to public disapproval of war. it's not really our fault to kill the innocent women/children when they are used as shield. their lives are extremely valuable, but not as valuable as killing the high priority targets which might save far more american lives. i am sorry that american lives worth more than non-american lives to US government, but any government would do the same thing, and that's what voters expect from their elected officials.
If you replace Americans with Terrorists in your post, you will be amazed how little the meaning changes.
yeah salayem, that's pretty easy to say. is it OK for them to hate us because were not Muslim, but it's NOT OK for us to hate them because they try to kill us? how is that fair in the eyes of the "great" Muhammed
=|:^( <----(depiction of the 'prophet' muhammed, uh oh, better bomb me) so pointless, so pointless
salayem,
nothing wrong w/ that. terrorists are waging a war against america. at military disadvantage, they are using unconventional means, but it's still a war. american drones aren't operated by police department or civilians, but people trained to kill, w/ the agenda for winning the war. terrorists and american employ diff methods but ultimately they all want to kill each other.
To Salayem:
The jahovas wittneses! I mean, think about it!
The name of this game is "WE WIN"!
One other thing about the people who talk about dialogue......how boring since Munich in 1972. What religious extremist group did that? Oh yeah, hmmmm 38 years ago to present, the disbelievers have been killed. The total disbelievers killed to date morons are. 3600 9/11, 4200 American soldiers in Iraq (albeit 10,000 Injured), 1500 American soldiers in Afganistan (2000 injured). Let me see if my math is correct. In 38 years since Munich approx 10,000 disbelievers have been killed. The American response......about 2,000,0000 extremists killed...either by our hands or their own. What a stupid set of people.
And your point is?
As a man I would never hide behind my wife and children if at war. I'd leave my family behind, safe, do what I needed to do regardless of my personal safety. It's called being a man. These cowards deserve to lose their families..
You will probably see a lot more drones being used this year. The nice thing about drones is you don't know when you're time is up and must go to be with the 70 virgins.
Naw... don't hide behind women and children, hide behind drones.
better to hide behind a machine than a human life
Absolutely nothing wrong with hiding behind a drone. After all, Todd hides behind a screen name, right?
Yes, killing innocent people has consequences as Bin Laden and Al Zawahiri now realize, assuming that these cowards are still alive and doing everything they possibly can to stay alive. Their actions have resulted in the deaths of thousands upon thousands of Muslims while they themselves do what it takes to avoid a 500lb. missile from sending them to Allah for judgment. But their time is coming, if it hasn't already come.
You have to bring the war to them so that these terrorists can taste and feel what it is like. All nations should understand that you cannot negotiate with them, you cannot reform them; you can only eliminate them.
Great...wish some more could have been killed there....cheers
Anybody who thinks that terrorists are localised in only so-called 'lawless' areas of NW are sadly mistaken. The whole nation is infested with these terrorists. How about LeT, which masterminded Mumbai 26/11. Its right there in Punjab bordering India. All these stupid Maulanas and the 'tate-of-the-art' education system of Pakistan through Madrassas is harboring unbelievable hatred in Pakistanis. The results are evident from all the terrorist attacks that are usually traced by to Pakistan.
Look, I am sure that many are in agreement with you. Education is the answer; particularly to the young kids. All the Madrases in Pakistan, in India, and other Muslim countries must stop teaching radicalism and hatred. They should instead teach love and forgiveness in their hearts.
I think you're right and they have the bomb.
I am a British Muslim of Pakistani origin who worked in the USA and had a great time and met some wonderful people. But it really upsets me when these people refuse to look at the crimes commited by their own government, and just point fingers at everyone else. What the Americans need to understand is organisations such as Al Qaeda are just a reaction to hypocritial american foreighn policy. On the one hand they illegally occupy and invade Iraq to instill democracy, yet at the same time prop up and support dictorial regimes with appalling human rights records in places like Algeria, Egypt, Saudi, Jordan etc. I now know I am not going to get any intelligent rebutals, just petty abuse.
I really do believe that we invaded Iraq for something else besides to instill democracy, we don't attack countries for that. Do I believe we should have invaded, YES i do. I think we should have finished that job in 91 the first time, and do you think Saddam should have stayed in power? the US is a world power and yes we are not perfect, but who is., but when a disaster happens somewhere, the US offers help. To them the US is wonderful when a disaster happens,but then we are hated once it's over. Keep biting the hand that feeds you and you might get shot dead like a dog.
Regarding the human rights abuses of these dictatorships ... under the rule of of extremist group like the Taliban I think the abuses are much more horrific. Look how the Taliban in Afghanistan treat the people there. No schools for girls, no music, for example, and they see fit to kill, maim, or injure anyone who doesn't follow their strict rules. I think the governments in Jordan and the other countries you named are for the most part much more tolerant of people living and enjoying their lives.
As for the occupation of Iraq, I'm sure most Americans would say this war was a mistake. We were given false pretenses for the invasion by the President and his advisors. but now that we are there, we can't leave prematurely and allow extremist groups or Iran to fill in the resulting power vacuum. It's now our responsibility to the Iraqi people to provide a stable government and safety from the terrorists who don't think twice about spilling innocents' blood.
If you feel so strongly, the gate door swings both ways...you can always go back to your mud hut city
Kash, I will give you an intelligent response and not abuse you. True the government has done things in the past that now can be viewed as hypocritical by many. But in reality what did those 3000 plus innocent people do to deserve to die the way that they did on 9/11? Absolutely nothing, nada, not one thing. They had nothing to do with the US government and their policies. Yet some indidividual who's family made their millions by working for the US governemnt decided on his own accord that the evil empire, that the infidels must be run out of the Muslim world. So in reality who is hypocritical, that government that does things that are not liked by most of the world or the person who works for that government and then decides that killing innocent people is what Allah wanted? Are there many issues we do not know about I am sure that there are many. But, just answer me this question, did those innocent people really need to die to make a point about our government?
Kash, you are very naive to think that Al Queda would not exist if the United States had a foreign policy more to their liking. Groups like that are all about power and stirring up hatred against any target they choose. Bin Laden would have had no trouble finding some other 'enemy' that would allow him to recruit ignorant followers to do his bidding.
#Kash
You seem to be a man with intellegence, we in the west have a simple question.
How would peace look like?
How does this war end?
So, simply disagreeing with another countries foreign policy is grounds to start a war? Why aren't Americans fighting a war with China, or Venezuela or any other number of countries we don't see eye to eye with? Your arguement doesn't hold much weight.
No abuse here, but look at things realistically, the facts are obvious the people we are dealing with are extremists and there is no easy way to handle them. There is absolutely nothing criminal about the US Government. We have in the past supported people and World Leaders who have proven to the world to be unfit leaders later on in their lives, the most difficult thing is to go back and correct those mistakes. The facts are these the people of the Middle East have been at war for far too many generations and their is no one over there that promotes any type of achievable peace plan. It is a shame to say but we may never see peace over their during our lifetime. There will be peace in the Middle East but it will not happen until people can accept and respect the beliefs and customs of other people. Now sacrafices must be made to keep the evil people from spreading their ideals and radical views, but the United States has always stood for Justice, Equality, Democracy, Freedom and the most basic rights of all people. It has been a long, hard road to get there and we are still travelling that road but at least we Americans are brave enough to make the journey!
One thing is for sure: as a result of the Taliban's near destruction the eradication of Saddam and his vile regime and the sustained attacks on Muslim terrorists the world over, no other Muslim nation will ever again even think about harboring a pack of Muslim terrorist thugs like Al Qaeda since it will essentially mean its annihilation. Bin Laden may have called the US a paper tiger after the Kenya embassy attacks but I imagine his mind has changed on this.
Obama's wish list of things he wishes he never said during the campaign: 1. We'll pass health care reform. 2. We'll be out of Guantanamo in a year. 3. We should emphasize Afghanistan, not Iraq.
You can not win a "war" against "extremists". You can not wage a "war" when you regularly change who you define as the enemy. These two ongoing "wars" have succeeded at only one thing: They have bred a whole new generation of those who vow to kill Americans and who are willing to die for the privilege.
Just pull out, admit the thing is as big a failure as Vietnam, and hope in a generation the world will forget it ever happened.
Ed you should have been an osterich
yeah, it'll only take a generation to forget this whole thing. (delusional!)
Kash, no petty abuse here. YOU may be peaceful but your religion IS NOT. Bin Laden reads the Koran and calls for Muslims to act it out. Muslims have been slaughtering themselves and so-called infidels for over 1500 years. The reason America and MANY other nations support corrupt and dysfunctional Islamic governments is simply because the alternatives are unthinkable! The terrible bloodbath that was unleashed on Algeria is a testament that at least some radical Islamic parties cannot govern without creating bloodshed. So please don't pretend that Islamic violence is a modern experience based on the Palestinian-Israeli issue since the historical record has Muslim blood-stained hands all over it!
Kash, we need to get a list of grievances on paper. We continue to get broad swipes about American transgressions. Its always Israel. ALWAYS. Let me ask one intelligent question to the crowd. Do you really think America will ever let Israel fall? Take out the emotion. This is a question of fact. Does anyone think America will let Israel fall? At best, lets use common sense and say that both Israel and Palestine may both be lying about their history in the region. To claim that Palestine is telling the correct story and Israel is telling the wrong story. How can we dialogue with people who won't look at possibilities of both sides lying a bit to meet their ends. So terrorists go out and kill people over two societies who skew their histories that caused all of this garbage.
9 terrorists are killed.. i think pakistani should be happy.. if they remove terror from their country.. no body will tell them terrorist.. but here i see different view
i'd love for the terrorists to come out and play, i'm not into killing innocent people, but i do know that they die in war, some by choice and others not by choice. In all reality i think that religious people should take a step back and rethink their faith. It's not just Muslims, look at Ireland, they aren't Muslims fighting there, Catholic and Protestant killing each other, give me a break. I'm not relirious, but I would think that if God did exist he wouldn't approve of killing your fellow man because he believes in God a little differantly. I believe people have the right to worship how they want, but to kill because they worship him another way is horse $%@&. That's why I believe religion and politics shouldn't mix. well looks like a little more than 2 cents lol. In truth these religious leaders need to take a step back and take a look at their faith.