WASHINGTON — Even as it publicly demands an end to U.S. drone attacks on militants in its tribal area, Pakistan is allowing the CIA to launch the missile-firing robot aircraft from an airbase in its province of Baluchistan, U.S. officials said Friday.
Up to 25 people reportedly died Friday in the latest drone strike, which took place in North Waziristan, a remote tribal area from which extremists launch cross-border attacks on U.S.-led forces in neighboring Afghanistan.
Pakistan’s contradictory positions on the strikes illustrate how the Pakistani army is trying to use public outrage in Pakistan over what are denounced as violations of national sovereignty to squeeze the U.S. into giving it a greater say in the selection of targets.
The Obama administration, however, is insisting that the Pakistani military accede to a longstanding U.S. demand to move against militant groups that control North Waziristan, which is Osama bin Laden’s suspected refuge, and that they use as a base for attacking Afghanistan.
That message was reiterated by Adm. Mike Mullen, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, in talks he held with Gen. Ashfaq Kayani, the head of the Pakistani army, in Islamabad on Thursday, said a knowledgeable person who asked not to be further identified because of the sensitivity of the issue.
Mullen told Kayani that there would be no let-up in drone operations until there are “decisive, verifiable Pak military operations against Haqqani and related groups responsible for actions leading to the deaths of American and coalition troops in Afghanistan,” the knowledgeable person said.
The North Waziristan-based Haqqani network is regarded as the most deadly and capable of the insurgent groups fighting U.S.-led forces in Afghanistan.
The drone feud has contributed to the worst deterioration in U.S.-Pakistan ties since the Pakistani army ended its patronage of the Afghan Taliban following the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks, and backed the U.S. invasion of Afghanistan.
Despite the tensions, however, the Pakistani military still is allowing the CIA to fly its remotely piloted Predator drones out of Shamsi Air Base, about 200 miles southwest of the Baluchistan capital of Quetta, U.S. officials said.
Asked about a Pakistani newspaper report that the Pakistani army had halted the CIA’s use of Shamsi, a U.S. counterterrorism official replied, “That would certainly be news to us.”
“The Pakistanis should spend less time complaining to the press (about the drone strikes) and more time trying to root out terrorists within their country,” said the U.S. counterterrorism official, who requested anonymity because the drone operations are classified.
News reports said that Friday’s drone strike hit militants led by Gul Bahadur, a Pakistani who has a pact with the Pakistani military under which his fighters refrain from attacking Pakistani troops in return for being allowed to cross into Afghanistan to hit American soldiers.
The U.S. counterterrorism official denied allegations that women and children were among those killed in the strike.
