Mistaken Air Strike Kills 17, Results in Protest
Not only did that air strike yesterday miss the target (al-Zawahri, al-Qaida’s number two), it killed 17 people, and has resulted in a protest by the Pakistani government:
Pakistan said Saturday it had filed a formal protest with the U.S. Embassy over a deadly airstrike on a border village that reportedly targeted al-Qaida’s No. 2 and killed at least 17 people.
“According to preliminary investigations there was foreign presence in the area and that, in all probability, was targeted from across the border in Afghanistan,” the Foreign Ministry said in a statement. “The investigations are still continuing.”
“Meanwhile, the Foreign Office has lodged a protest with the U.S. Ambassador in Islamabad,” the ministry said.
Note the phrase ‘foreign presence in the area’. Now, we turn to another such phrase:
Earlier Saturday, Information Minister Sheikh Rashid Ahmed condemned the airstrike, but did not directly blame the United States for the attack.
Ahmed told a news conference the government wanted “to assure the people we will not allow such incidents to reoccur.” He also said the government had no information about al-Zawahri.
“We deeply regret that civilian lives have been lost in an incident in Bajur agency. While this act is highly condemnable, we have been for a long time striving to rid all our tribal areas of foreign intruders who have been responsible for all the misery and violence in the region. This situation has to be brought to an end,” he said.
Asked who had carried out the attack, Ahmed said Pakistan’s Foreign Ministry would “let you know.”
Ahmed said it was also the responsibility of local people “to fully cooperate with the government in flushing out the foreign militants” from Pakistan.
Foreign “militants”,”intruders”,”presence” – of course he’s talking about al-Qaida. No one likes to see civilians die – but these civilians in all propability have harbored the terrorists at one time or another. I think that’s a fair interpretation of the Pakistani comments.
Nevertheless, we missed him, and suffered a black eye, and people are dead…I’m not making excuses; it is a tragedy…as the Pakistani government says, however, the best way to avoid these situations is to turn over all information regarding the whereabouts of these terrorists. Osama and company cannot hide among people without the cooperation of said people…
How do you think we got the information (accurate or not) about al Zawahri’s location in the first place?
In all likelihood, something like:
Boom! There goes cousin Naseer and his whole extended family.
You’re probably right – I’m certainly not trying to make light of the situation, it’s very sad, and most unfortunate…
that’s one way to settle a blood feud.
in “that” society.
tell some american the person they’re after is in the person’s house you’re aiming to get even with.
the UAVs become your private air force.
this will happen again, again, and again.
or, sacrifice some innocent family just to embarass the US in the worldocrat world of public opinion.
LouieLouie has a point. That’s what human shields are all about, after all.
We don’t work that way, and, unfortunately, a good proportion of westerners (in addition to western media) don’t get that.
Hey, it’s bebere…how goes it?
Yeah, that’s an excellent (if depressing) point…
I thought it was interesting that Pakistani officials were so certain Zawahiri was not in the area of the strike. Sounds as though they can pinpoint his movements with some accuracy.