Awan was speaking to the media in Lahore. PHOTO: FILE US official says the base is neither vacated nor being vacated, drone attacks will continue. PHOTO: FILE
WASHINGTON / LAHORE: The United States is rejecting demands from Pakistani officials that American personnel abandon a military base used by the CIA to stage drone strikes against suspected militants, US officials told Reuters.
US personnel have not left the remote Pakistani military installation known as Shamsi Air Base and there is no plan for them to do so, said a US official familiar with the matter, who asked for anonymity to discuss sensitive material.
“That base is neither vacated nor being vacated,” the official said.
The information was confirmed by a second US official. The US declaration that drone operations in Pakistan will continue unabated is the latest twist in a fraught relationship between security authorities in Washington and Islamabad, which has been under increasing strain for months.
Regarding the Shamsi base in particular, Pakistani officials have frequently suggested it is being shuttered, comments that may be aimed at quieting domestic opposition to US military operations using Pakistani soil.
Earlier this week, Pakistani Defense Minister Ahmed Mukhtar told the Financial Times that Pakistan had already stopped US drone operations there.
On Thursday, Mukhtar told Reuters: “When they (US forces) will not operate from there, no drone attacks will be carried out.” He said Islamabad had been pressuring the US to vacate the base even before the May 2 commando raid in which US Navy SEAL commandos killed Osama bin Laden. After the raid, Mukhtar said, “We told them again.”
A senior Pakistani military official, who spoke on condition of anonymity, added that when US forces first launched counter-terrorism operations in Afghanistan, Pakistan “provided Americans two bases in Jacobabad and Shamsi. Jacobabad base has been vacated for long time ago, but Shamsi is still with them.”
“They are vacating it,” the official insisted. “Shamsi base was for logistic purpose. They also used it for drones for some time but no drones have been flown from there.”
Different stories
The official said no base in Pakistan was presently used by the Americans for drone operations. But he did not give a precise date for when drones supposedly stopped operating from Shamsi.
The US officials disputed that account. If anything, the Obama administration is moving to a counter-terrorism strategy based more on drone strikes and other covert operations than on deploying large numbers of troops.
On Wednesday, John Brennan, president Barack Obama’s top counter-terrorism advisor, promised that in the tribal regions along the Afghan/Pakistan border, the US would continue to “deliver precise and overwhelming force against al Qaeda.”
“And when necessary, as the President has said repeatedly, if we have information about the whereabouts of al Qaeda, we will do what is required to protect the United States — as we did with bin Laden,” Brennan said in a speech.
Pakistani officials have faced fierce criticism for tacitly allowing the CIA to conduct drone operations on Pakistani soil. Allegations that civilian bystanders have been killed in drone attacks have only compounded the political problems facing Pakistani authorities.
Brennan rejected suggestions that US drone attacks had caused numerous civilian casualties, claiming that the US had been “exceptionally precise and surgical” in its operations. “Not a single collateral death” had been caused by US counter-terrorism operations over the last year, he said.
US officials have said that since the United States in July 2008 greatly increased the rate of drone-borne missile strikes against suspected militants along the Afghan/Pakistan border, the number of civilian deaths caused by such attacks has totaled under 40. Some Pakistani officials and human rights activists have claimed the death toll is much higher.
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Pakistan tells US to leave Shamsi airbase
By Kamran Yousaf
Published: June 30, 2011
Defence minister says it is time to review anti-terror cooperation with Washington.
ISLAMABAD:
Pakistan is pushing the US to abandon an airbase in Balochistan that the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) has reportedly been using for years to undertake its drone campaign inside the country’s tribal areas, the defence minister said.
Defence Minister Ahmed Mukhtar’s statement confirming that the US had been told to leave the Shamsi airbase is the latest indication of the simmering tensions between the key war-on-terror allies.
The minister told a group of journalists in Islamabad on Wednesday that it was time to review the anti-terror cooperation with the US.
“We have told them [US officials] to leave the airbase,” APP quoted Mukhtar as saying.
Pakistan first asked the CIA to vacate the airbase early this year when the two countries negotiated to redefine their cooperation after an American contactor shot at and killed two Pakistanis in Lahore.
Islamabad pressed its demand harder after last month’s overnight-raid by US Navy SEALs in Abbottabad that killed former al Qaeda chief Osama bin Laden.
The move by the security establishment was part of its efforts to reduce US footprints on Pakistani soil.
It is still unclear whether at all, or when, the Americans would abandon the facility they have been using since former president Pervez Musharraf first allowed them to operate from it back in 2006.
Meanwhile, there were more signs of escalating tensions between Washington and Islamabad as the Pakistani military hit back at US generals accusing it of being lax on militants.
A statement by the military’s public relations wing rebuked a statement by top US generals in a testimony before the Senate’s arms service committee.
“We reject allegations leveled by senior US military officials as reported in a section of the press casting aspersions on the desire and capability of the Pakistan army to fight militancy,” said the statement by the Inter Services Public Relations (ISPR).
Lieutenant General John Allen, named the next commander in Afghanistan, suggested Pakistan was keeping its options open by allowing Haqqani fighters to operate within its borders.
“It’s a function, probably, of capacity. But it might also be a function of their hedging, whether they have determined that the US is going to remain in Afghanistan and whether our strategy will be successful or not,” Allen told the Senate Armed Services Committee.
But Pakistani military rejected the comments terming them “uncalled for”.
“Our concerns and constraints must be taken into consideration before making any statement questioning our commitment to fighting militancy,” the ISPR statement added.
The reaction by the Pakistani military appeared to be indicating that both countries were facing a severe trust deficit in terms of who should spearhead a so-called reconciliation process in Afghanistan.
Mukhtar also admitted that the level of trust deficit was the highest in 10 years, but suggested it could be reduced through constant engagement.
“This trust deficit could be reduced by sitting together and taking joint actions,” he told the media.
On Tuesday, US vice admiral William McRaven, who oversaw the Bin Laden raid, said the US military believes that Taliban supreme leader Mullah Omar is in Pakistan and had asked the Pakistani army to locate him.
Asked about Omar, Mukhtar said: “Even if he was in Pakistan, he would have left the country after the Abbottabad incident.”
Published in The Express Tribune, June 30th, 2011.
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Evacuation: Seven aircraft land at Shamsi base
QUETTA:
At least seven aircraft landed at Shamsi airbase in Balochistan on Wednesday to airlift personnel and equipment out of Pakistan. According to sources in Washuk district, American officials were likely to vacate the airbase today (Thursday).
“Seven aircraft have landed here since morning,” a local confirmed, adding, “They also set several containers on fire today … the containers were used by American officials.”
Sources also reported that that some equipment was loaded onto the aircraft. However, drones stood in nearby hangars and an American radar was also visible that had so far not been shifted.
No US official was available to comment on whether American will vacate the airbase on Thursday.
The controversial airbase, located about 300 kilometres south of Quetta, has been used as a key launch pad for drone strikes in Afghanistan and allegedly also for those carried out in Pakistan’s own tribal areas.
Published in The Express Tribune, December 8th, 2011.
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