http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/4212489...d_central_asia/

נורו 4 טילים על ריכוז של לוחמי טאליבן , מעניין אם זאת התקפת המל"ט הקטלנית ביותר עד עכשיו.

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/03/18/w...an.html?_r=1&hp

[font=georgia,'times new roman',times,serif]Drone Attack Kills Civilians in Pakistan

By SALMAN MASOOD and PIR ZUBAIR SHAH

Published: March 17, 2011

ISLAMABAD, Pakistan — Several missiles fired from American drone aircraft on Thursday struck a meeting of local people in northwest Pakistan who had gathered with Taliban mediators to settle a dispute over a chromite mine. The attack killed nearly everyone present — 26 of 32 people, according to a Pakistani intelligence official — some of them Taliban fighters, but the majority elders and local people not attached to the militants.


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The civilian death toll appeared to be among the worst in the scores of strikes carried out recently in Pakistan’s tribal areas by the C.I.A, which runs the drones. Local residents and media reports said as many as 40 people had been killed in all, though the intelligence official disputed that.
The Pakistani military chief, Gen. Ashfaq Parvez Kayani, issued an unusual and unusually strong condemnation of the attack, according to a statement released by his office. “It is highly regrettable that a jirga of peaceful citizens including elders of the area was carelessly and callously targeted with complete disregard to human life,” it said.
About four missiles fired from one or more drones hit the meeting, known as a jirga, of two local tribes and Taliban mediators who had gathered on an open ground at a market in Datta Khel, in North Waziristan, according to two residents who live nearby in Miranshah, the largest city in the region.
The intelligence official said 32 people had attended the meeting in all. Thirteen of them were Taliban fighters, 11 of whom were killed. The rest of the dead were elders and tribesmen.
“The Taliban will never gather in such a large number in broad day light to be targeted by the drones,” according to a resident who did not want to be indentified for fear of running afoul of the militants. “It has been a big mistake to target the jirga as it will have severe consequences,” he added.
Recently discovered chromite mines are common in the area. To keep the mines running profitably, the Taliban — as the reigning authorities in the area — often settle disputes between tribes with competing claims and levy taxes on exports and the mine operators.
The drone strikes on Thursday were the second such barrage in two days in Datta Khel, and the sixth in the tribal areas in the past week, according to The Long War Journal, a Web site that monitors the wars in Afghanistan and Pakistan.
After a pause in drone attacks from Jan. 23 to Feb. 20, the pace of attacks has picked up again this month. Some analysts attributed the lull to the C.I.A. not wanting to upset negotiations to free Raymond Davis, the C.I.A. security contractor who was released on Wednesday. But American intelligence officials denied that and attributed the pause in part to poor weather.
The region is under the sway of a local warlord and Taliban commander, Hafiz Gul Bahadur, who made a truce with the government as the Pakistani military pushed into South Waziristan in 2009. But he has accepted many Taliban fighters who fled the campaign into his area, and he maintains close ties to the Haqqani network, a militant group allied with the government and the Taliban that uses North Waziristan as its main base to launch attacks against American forces across the border in Afghanistan.
The Pakistani intelligence official and local residents said that one of the Taliban fighters killed or wounded in the attack Thursday was Sherabat Khan, one of Hafiz Gul Bahadar’s lieutenants.
Attacks by the American drones are immensely unpopular in Pakistan and have been a rallying point for anti-American sentiment, though in recent years they have provoked less outrage in the tribal areas, as the strikes have focused increasingly on foreign fighters loyal to Al Qaedawho have infiltrated the area, and as fewer civilians have been killed by them.
The attack on Thursday, however, threatened to turn opinion in the region against the attacks once again. One resident said that given the large Taliban presence, ordinary people and the militants were difficult to distinguish in the area, but that to target a jirga would lead to a backlash. “It will create resentment among the locals,” he said, “and everyone might turn in to suicide bombers.”
Salman Masood reported from Islamabad and Pir Zubair Shah from New York. Eric Schmitt contributed reporting from Washington.

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"במידה רבה, הודות למאמרי הארץ הוקמה ממשלת הליכוד הלאומי ונתמנה משה דיין כשר הבטחון. הארץ דרש תגובה צבאית על האיום המצרי שבועיים לפני המלחמה, ואף דרש את תפיסת הרמה הסורית ימים אחדים לפני הפעולה".
(הארץ מפרסם את עצמו, 22 ביוני 1967)


המדריך לשביל ישראל, מאת יגיל הנקין ויעקב סער. מהדורה רביעית, 2020
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