The Ubiquitous American Drone

At least 11 fighters with alleged links to al-Qaeda have been killed in an air strike in Yemen, according to local residents and tribal officials.

Local residents told the Reuters news agency on Tuesday that an unidentified drone carried out the attack on two vehicles travelling east of the city of Loder in Abyan province in southern Yemen.

A tribal leader said at least four of those killed were local al-Qaeda leaders, according to Reuters.

[...]

"We think they were carried out by American planes," a tribal official told AFP, speaking on condition of anonymity and without elaborating.

  alJazeera

That’s a good guess.

And, meanwhile in Pakistan…

The New America Foundation, a think tank in Washington, says drone strikes in Pakistan have killed between 1,715 and 2,680 people in the past eight years.

[...]

US President Barack Obama has [finally] confirmed that unmanned drones have regularly struck Pakistan’s tribal areas in his government’s efforts to dismantle what it alleges are al-Qaeda sanctuaries in the region.

[...]

"For us to be able to get them in another way would involve probably a lot more intrusive military action than the ones we're already engaging in."

[...]

A spokesman for Pakistan's foreign ministry reiterated the government's public protest in response to Obama's comments.

"Notwithstanding tactical advantages of drone strikes, we are of the firm view that these are unlawful, counterproductive and hence unacceptable," Abdul Basit said.

[...]

The controversial drone programme run by the CIA has often been met with protests in Pakistan amid concerns of civilian casualties. The Pakistani government publicly protests the operations, but is believed to support them.

  alJazeera

Which would explain why we don’t even bother to try to placate the government when they do complain. Should the citizenry ever decide they’ve had enough and rise up against the government, we’ll have to dance a little faster.

And then there’s the surveillance drones in Iraq…

President Barack Obama downplayed a recent report about the use of US drones in Iraq, indicating that the unmanned aircraft are mainly used for embassy surveillance.

Obama said during an online event on Monday that a New York Times story citing Iraqi officials as expressing outrage over the use of US drones following last year’s troop withdrawal was “a little overwritten.”

“The truth of the matter is we’re not engaging in a bunch of drone attacks inside of Iraq. There’s some surveillance to make sure that our embassy compound is protected.”

  Raw Story

We’re just watching. If you’re not doing anything wrong….

And no, you can't fly surveillance drones in our skies.

"A little overwritten."