Another US missile hits a Pakistani school

A suspected US missile strike has killed at least eight students at a religious school in north-western Pakistan, witnesses say.

The school, in North Waziristan, is close to the residence of a fugitive Taleban leader, Jalaluddin Haqqani, witnesses told the BBC Urdu Service.

At least two missiles, reportedly fired by pilotless US drones, hit the school early on Thursday.

The Pakistani army is investigating the incident. The US has made no comment.

The attack comes hours after the Pakistani parliament unanimously adopted a resolution calling on the government to defend its sovereignty and expel foreign fighters from the region.

The resolution also called upon the government to prevent the use of Pakistani territory for attacks on another country.

There have been persistent US accusations that Pakistan is not doing enough to eliminate Taleban and al-Qaeda sanctuaries in the border region.

Growing tension

Witnesses told the BBC that the missiles destroyed nearly half of the school building in the Dande Darpakhel area near Miranshah, the main town in the North Waziristan tribal region.

At least six people were injured in the attack, witnesses say. It is still not clear whether there were any foreign fighters among the dead students or whether it is linked to Mr Haqqani or his son, Sirajuddin.

Local people have said that most of the injured were local students at the seminary.

Some madrassas in Pakistan have been accused of promoting militancy.

The residential complex of Jalaluddin Haqqani was targeted in a missile attack in September. At least 14 people were killed and 15 injured.

Taleban and al-Qaeda fighters use North Waziristan and other tribal areas to launch attacks in Afghanistan.

Foreign fighters from Uzbekistan, Afghanistan and the Middle East are all thought to be based there.


In recent weeks the United States has launched many missile strikes against suspected militant targets in the Afghan border region.

Washington says the strikes are used against militant targets, but correspondents say that intelligence failures have sometimes led to civilian casualties.

Figures compiled by the BBC Urdu service show that some 80 people have been killed in a number of suspected US missile strikes in South and North Waziristan region over the past month.

Earlier in October a suspected pilotless American drone fired missiles in North Waziristan, killing at least six people, Pakistani intelligence officials said.

The United States rarely confirms or denies such attacks.

Tensions between the US and Pakistan have increased over the issue of cross-border incursions against militants by American forces based in Afghanistan.

Pakistani President Asif Ali Zardari has said he will not tolerate violations of his country's territory.

The US state department has affirmed "its support for Pakistan's sovereignty, independence, unity, and territorial integrity"

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/south_asia/7685593.stm

Killing innocent children and women OVER AND OVER AND OVER again. There is really not much to say now!

The US is going nuts. The war on terror is now a war of terror.

furriner wrote:The US is going nuts. The war on terror is now a war of terror.

It was never anything else.

When has the most powerful nation on earth throughout history ever failed to throw its weight around?

furriner wrote:The US is going nuts. The war on terror is now a war of terror.

It always was furry.

Well the aim of terrorism is to terrorise. This is probably an honest mistake as I was surprised during GW1 that the US Air Force could even find Baghdad, let alone hit it.

Bradman wrote:Well the aim of terrorism is to terrorise. This is probably an honest mistake as I was surprised during GW1 that the US Air Force could even find Baghdad, let alone hit it.

There have been too many of these "honest" mistakes in the last few weeks ALONE.

They are just shooting in the dark(almost literally) in a desperate attempt to get something positive out of this whole crises.

Faisal,

Let us say the US stops its attacks. How do you think Pakistan will deal with these extremists who are now threatening the very existence of Pakistan ?
To complicate matters Pakistan is on the verge of bankruptcy and without the money from the US. IMF. China, Saudi etc. it will slide into anarchy.

Josh Carney wrote:Faisal,

Let us say the US stops its attacks. How do you think Pakistan will deal with these extremists who are now threatening the very existence of Pakistan ?
To complicate matters Pakistan is on the verge of bankruptcy and without the money from the US. IMF. China, Saudi etc. it will slide into anarchy.

1- Totally different topic. What US has constantly been doing is an act of war, its both highly illegal and highly immoral and has to be condemned in the strongest way possible.


2- Extremists won't/can't magically take over an entire country. The local people(even in the tribes) are totally against these militants and they themselves have stepped against them. Now what these average folks DON'T need are these missiles coming in and killing/severely injuring their children.

3- Once again countries don't go bankrupt that quickly. Secondly you almost make it sound that US, China and SA come under the same umbrella, if PAK gets in to a mega financial crises then they can ask for China's help and not a country like the US which BTW owes a LOT of money to guess who....China.

PlanetPakistan wrote:

Josh Carney wrote:Faisal,

Let us say the US stops its attacks. How do you think Pakistan will deal with these extremists who are now threatening the very existence of Pakistan ?
To complicate matters Pakistan is on the verge of bankruptcy and without the money from the US. IMF. China, Saudi etc. it will slide into anarchy.

1- Totally different topic. What US has constantly been doing is an act of war, its both highly illegal and highly immoral and has to be condemned in the strongest way possible.


2- Extremists won't/can't magically take over an entire country. The local people(even in the tribes) are totally against these militants and they themselves have stepped against them. Now what these average folks DON'T need are these missiles coming in and killing/severely injuring their children.

3- Once again countries don't go bankrupt that quickly. Secondly you almost make it sound that US, China and SA come under the same umbrella, if PAK gets in to a mega financial crises then they can ask for China's help and not a country like the US which BTW owes a LOT of money to guess who....China.

Worst part of it all is that they are using MY tax money to kill people from MY country.

If you aren't part of the solution, you're just another part of the problem . . .

Saddam Hussein was known to go into hiding underneath Iraqi schools, in the assumption that the US wouldn't target them.

The US hasn't run a decent war since the Civil War and even then they relied on opposing Generals to try their best to fark it up.

This is probably time for the Pakistani govt. to start doing something about it, rather than just talk.

It is always very sad when innocent children end up having to bear the brunt of adult stupidity. Maybe its time for Pakistan to introspect.

Nonetheless there is great irony in the quote below and much truth in the adage; practice what you preach.

The attack comes hours after the Pakistani parliament unanimously adopted a resolution calling on the government to defend its sovereignty and expel foreign fighters from the region.

The resolution also called upon the government to prevent the use of Pakistani territory for attacks on another country.

Hey! Here's a thought. Stop strapping C4 to people and maybe the US will stop sending really ugly variants of C4 to waste you.

Hmm, that's a bit uncalled for Sir Don.

Henry wrote:Saddam Hussein was known to go into hiding underneath Iraqi schools, in the assumption that the US wouldn't target them.

some very important points Henry
1- US and their drones have no business entering Pakistan.
2- US has no right to bomb Pakistan- its an act of war and almost an invitation for Washington and/or Texas to be bombed in the same way.
3- US has no right to bomb Pakistan.
4- US has no right to bomb Pakistan.
5- US intelligence at best is a failure, they have already killed countless civilians in hunt for so called "terrorists".
6- Dropping bombs on hundreds of kids in an attempt to wipe out a few militants is well .....

Bradman wrote:Hey! Here's a thought. Stop strapping C4 to people and maybe the US will stop sending really ugly variants of C4 to waste you.

wonder how you will feel if they sent similar variants to your area...

Faisal,

Truth of the matter is that the US is providing huge aids to Palistan. Pakistan is now relying on the IMF to get out of its financial mess and the IMF is controlled by the US.

The extremism movement in Pakistan is not just restricted to the border areas. Cities like Lahore and Karachi are now under this influence. It is not just the Pashtuns, more and more Punjabis are also taking to this nonsencial idology. The Lal Masjid example and other instances of Islamisation in Lahore, such as bombing the fruit juce shops, DVD sellers etc. is an ominous sign. The US is not responsible for this.

Extremists from Pakistan have been causing bleeding to the neighbours and now to NATO, so USA will argue that it has a right to act. The US has also tabled the many times it provided intelligence to Pakistan which were then used by the rogue elements in the sate to provide warnings to these extremists.

Truth is that if there were no NATO or US for these loonies to vent their anger out, they will turn their full fury on the Pakistan state and will suceed in cauring a lot of misery. On that count the argument that if US/NATO leaves Afghanistan tomorrow all of Pakistan's problems will be resolved is ridiculously flawed.

There is a huge fire burning and the neighbour is throwing a twig into that. That is how I classify the US actions. Whilst one can get emotional at the neighbour the fire is the problem and till Pakistan addresses that notihng will change.

Another one on Sunday.
US targets militant training camp

Josh,

Sadly in your posts i don't see any condemnation of these cowardly attacks in fact you are trying your best to change the subject. I have NOT claimed that all the problems in Pakistan will magically go away once the US and its allies stop intervening in Pakistan but US is certainly not the part of the solution either. Despite several illegal military attacks on the Pakistani soil they have failed to achieve anything substantial other than killing civilians(especially women and children) while in the last 4 years the Pakistani forces have killed thousands of so called "militants" and civilians yet the message from Washington is the same "do more, do more".

p.s According the militants themselves RAW is proving the financial aid for these suicide bombs in Pakistan so if the US are genuinely serious in cutting down terrorism then instead of blindly putting a bullet in every one's a$$ they should first look at where the militants are getting the financial support such the drug business, RAW etc. I honestly don't think the US give a damn about terrorism in Pakistan.

Bradman wrote:Hey! Here's a thought. Stop strapping C4 to people and maybe the US will stop sending really ugly variants of C4 to waste you.

Here's another thought. Killing students isn't a good idea.

PlanetPakistan wrote:Josh,

Sadly in your posts i don't see any condemnation of these cowardly attacks in fact you are trying your best to change the subject. I have NOT claimed that all the problems in Pakistan will magically go away once the US and its allies stop intervening in Pakistan but US is certainly not the part of the solution either. Despite several illegal military attacks on the Pakistani soil they have failed to achieve anything substantial other than killing civilians(especially women and children) while in the last 4 years the Pakistani forces have killed thousands of so called "militants" and civilians yet the message from Washington is the same "do more, do more".

p.s According the militants themselves RAW is proving the financial aid for these suicide bombs in Pakistan so if the US are genuinely serious in cutting down terrorism then instead of blindly putting a bullet in every one's a$$ they should first look at where the militants are getting the financial support such the drug business, RAW etc. I honestly don't think the US give a damn about terrorism in Pakistan.

I am no fan of the US Foreign plicy and I am all against the killing of innocents. Faisal you would have heard that the recent American raid got a Taliban Commander. The US claims that they had to take action following the Embassy bomibing in Kabul which clearly had imprints of rogue elements in Pakistan and they even accuse the new Army chiel of complicity. One cannot rule out the US election angle to this either. That said unless Pakistan address the problem in their backyard instead of blaming others they will continue to face these incursions. From a US perspective they have given plenty of money and time for Pakistan to clean up their act but now are conviced that their money is used against them and the NATO. If I have not made myself clear there is no justification for killing innocents.