Taliban terrorised by US drones !

[GoFlyKiteNow]

Suspected US drone strikes kill at least 29 in Pakistan
February 3rd, 2010 - 1:36 am

Taliban Islamabad, Feb 3 (DPA) Multiple missile strikes carried out by suspected US pilotless drone aircraft killed at least 29 people in Pakistan’s restive tribal region Tuesday, a Pakistani intelligence official said.

“At least eight drones took part in the attack, and they have fired some 18 missiles at three training camps of Taliban, their two vehicles and some bunkers,” said a local intelligence official who spoke on condition of anonymity.

Taliban militants have fired at the US aircraft from some of these bunkers. One drone was shot down by the militants Jan 24.

“According to the initial reports we have received from various areas, at least 29 people have been killed while around a dozen more are injured,” said the official about Tuesday’s attack, adding that the death toll might rise.

People are buried under the debris of the demolished house, but no one dares to carry out rescue work since the drones are still flying in the area, the official said over phone. “Almost all those killed are Taliban (fighters).”

The US has intensified its campaign to target militant hideouts with drone strikes in Pakistan’s rugged tribal region since an Al Qaeda double agent killed five CIA officials and two private security contractors in a suicide bombing in the Afghan province of Khost Dec 30.

Pakistani Taliban chief Hakimullah Mehsud was reported to have been killed in a similar missile strike in early January, but days later he denied the reports in two audio messages released to local reporters.

Pakistan publicly opposes the air raids, saying they violate the country’s territorial sovereignty and stoke anti-American sentiments among the local population.

# US drone attack kills six in Pakistan - Jan 19, 2010
# US missile strike kills 15 militants in Pakistan - Jan 17, 2010
# Suspected US airstrike kills 10 in Pakistan - Jan 14, 2010
# US drone attack kills nine in Pakistan - Jan 30, 2010
# US airstrike kills 10 in Pakistan (Lead) - Jan 14, 2010
# US missile strikes kill 15 in Pakistan - Jan 06, 2010
# US drone attacks kill 17 in Pakistan - Dec 18, 2009
# 10 killed in US drone attacks in Pakistan - Feb 03, 2010
# Suspected US missile strike kills 12 in Pakistan (Lead) - Aug 21, 2009
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[singveld]

fly from afghanistan , control by pilot in Arizona.

What an amazing technology.

so next time, during the war with malaysia, PAP can control the drone from australia, and NS men can fight in the trench.

 

[postnew]

Strike! No Mercy.
(ABC News Photo Illustration)

US drones killed 123 innocent Pakistanis in January aloneMonday, February 1, 2010
Subscribe to NewsletterLahore, Feb. 1 (ANI): At least 123 innocent civilians were killed in 12 US drone strikes in Pakistan's tribal areas in January alone.
Buzz up!The deaths were caused because ten out of 12 deadly missile strikes missed their targets causing heavy casualty. The remaining two successful drone strikes killed three al-Qaeda leaders, wanted by the Americans, The News reports.
The rapid increase in the US drone attacks in the Pakistani tribal areas bordering Afghanistan can be gauged from the fact that only two such strikes were carried out in January 2009, which killed 36 people.
The highest number of drone attacks carried out in a single month in 2009 was six, which were conducted in December last year. But the dawn of the New Year has already seen a dozen such attacks.

The unprecedented rise in the predator strikes with the beginning of the year 2010 is being attributed to December 30, 2009 suicide bombing in the Khost area of Afghanistan bordering North Waziristan, which killed seven CIA agents.
The consequent increase in US strikes, first in North Waziristan and then South Waziristan, specifically targeting the fugitive TTP chief Hakimullah Mehsud clearly shows that revenge is the major motive for these attacks. (ANI)

 

[postnew]

How unmanned drones are changing modern warfare
By Chris Bowlby
Producer, Robo Wars, BBC Radio
Mark Jenkins is an experienced RAF pilot, flying combat missions over Afghanistan.

But he works from an airbase in Nevada, 8,000 miles away.

"I've got a 45-minute drive home. And then by the time I'm home, I'm kind of straight into family life."
He is one of a new generation of pilots who fly drones - or unmanned aerial vehicles, UAVs, as the military prefer to call them.
Flt Lt Jenkins trained on conventional planes - but there are now pilots joining the RAF who may never leave the ground, according to Air Vice Marshal Tim Anderson, a top Ministry of Defence planner.
Drones look in many ways like conventional planes. But in place of a cockpit with a pilot they have noses full of hi-tech surveillance devices and are often armed with missiles and bombs.

Military advantages

They are launched near areas of combat but are then "flown" by remote control, via satellite links, operated by pilots who may be thousands of miles away.
The drone revolution addresses two urgent requirements for today's military:

There is no risk of your pilots dying
Pilotless planes promise to be cheaper to make and run than conventional fighter jets
The US military already has over 7,000 unmanned aerial systems, and the RAF is following in its wake.

The RAF's 39 Squadron flies Reaper drone missions over Afghanistan from the Nevada base. The US authorities refused a BBC request to visit, but we were able to speak to RAF personnel there by phone.
Andy Baverstock analyses the images beamed back from the Reapers' cameras. He describes his team's advanced situational awareness as they watch intently what's happening in Afghanistan.
"Because you're doing it for so long, you can tell whether a group of people are moving tactically or whether it's a group of guys going to irrigate a field."

Ethics

How do they decide whether to use lethal force when they are so far from the battlefield? Wing Commander Jules Ball replies that they often respond to requests for support from soldiers on the ground.
Otherwise, "we would most definitely be having to go to higher headquarters in order to ensure that what we were doing was appropriate, necessary, proportional and legal. We wouldn't be doing it autonomously if you like from 8,000 miles away".
It is not just the military who fly drones.
The CIA uses them to attack al-Qaeda and Taliban targets, sometimes on the territory of Pakistan, a US ally.
Pakistan has been publicly critical of US drone attacks
The US government believes drones enable it to strike back at terrorist leaders where conventional forces have failed. Pakistani media have reported hundreds of civilian deaths in such attacks.
CIA operations like this require presidential authorisation. According to the New America Foundation, a think tank, President Obama has been authorising drone strikes at a higher rate than President Bush.
Such is the secrecy surrounding CIA operations that there are no clear rules of engagement. There is "no accountability after the fact" says Philip Alston, UN special rapporteur on extra-judicial executions.

Divisive

Vicki Divoll, who worked for several years as a CIA lawyer, refuses to confirm that such attacks happen as reported. But based on "what we believe to be happening," she reveals deep divisions within the CIA about the use of drones.
Using drones to kill people has been "extremely controversial" at the agency, she says.
"When the controls are manned by someone in a suburb of Washington rather than by someone in the field you become so detached that there's no cost, there's no limitation on you."
The implications of the robotic revolution are profound.
The US is already recruiting drone pilots from among young men skilled at computer games. Instead of flying into danger they may never need to leave the security of a cabin full of computer screens on home soil.
Will this revolution change attitudes towards killing and make governments feel war is less costly or risky?
Air Vice Marshal Tim Anderson, trained in British military tradition, has his concerns.
But he hopes that responsibility for combat will still "imbue within operators an appropriate sense of culture and ethos, such that it never becomes a video game".
What does it mean for the British pilot Mark Jenkins, based in Nevada, when he kills people remotely?
"It's going to weigh on your mind. It does. I don't think you'd be human if it didn't. But I've got a family at home and I need to be there for my family, so I deal with it."

An armed MQ-9 Reaper unmanned aerial vehicle taxis down a runway in Afghanistan

 

[halsey02]

SINgkingporeans terrorised everyday by MIW's drones...grasslooter's...etc... ha ha ha ha

 

[Sperminator]

SINgkingporeans terrorised everyday by MIW's drones...grasslooter's...etc... ha ha ha ha

Predator Drones Active... RUN RUN RUN!!!

I think the US is coming up with newer Predator Versions, as it's overwhelmingly effective... cost of lives is low for operation of Predator.