Stepped-up U.S. drone strikes spark off protests in Pakistan

Hundreds of people took to the streets in Pakistan's central city of Multan on Thursday, shouting anti-U.S. slogans and burning U.S. national flags in a protest against the recent U.S. drone strikes in the country's northwest tribal areas, which reportedly killed at least 34 people over the last three days. Waving banners saying "Stop Drone Attacks" and "World Terrorist America", angry protesters believed that while the U.S. drone strikes kill militants, they also kill innocent local people and most of all such strikes have seriously violated the country's space territorial right. Recently the U.S. side has apparently stepped up its drone strikes in Pakistan's northwest tribal areas which border Afghanistan. Over the last three consecutive days the U.S. drones have launched three strikes (counted on a daily basis) in North Waziristan and South Waziristan, two tribal areas in the deep mountainous areas of northwest Pakistan, which the U.S. believes to be a haven of militants who often launch attacks on the U.S.- led NATO troops in Afghanistan across the Pakistani border. On Tuesday morning, U.S. drones fired two missiles at a house suspected of being a militant hideout in the Miransha area of North Waziristan, killing at least seven people. This has prompted a strong protest by the local people in Peshawar, the largest city in Pakistan's northwest province of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa. Despite the protest, the U.S. drones launched another massive strike in the next day at a compound in a hilly area of Jandola, a place sitting far deep in South Waziristan on its eastern side bordering inner Pakistan. A total of 18 people were reportedly killed in the strike. The U.S. side claimed that an estimated 25 militants were inside the compound while the strike was launched and 18 suspected militants including three Taliban commanders were killed in the operation. On Thursday afternoon, news coming in said that the U.S. drones launched a third strike in the Razmak area of North Waziristan, killing at least nine people. Thursday's U.S. drone strike is the fourth of is kind in Pakistan since this month and the 63rd of its kind (both counted on daily basis) in 2011. To date, at least 543 people have reportedly been killed in such strikes so far this year. Though the U.S. side claims that most of the people killed in such strikes are militants, the U.S. drones do often mistakenly kill innocent people in the strike areas. Once a U.S. drone strike mistakenly took the participants of a local peace jirga in northwest Pakistan as militants and killed dozens of innocent people attending the meeting, which led to a nation-wide protest across Pakistan. The United States believes that drone strike is an effective way to deal with the militants hiding in the deep mountains of northwest Pakistan along the Afghanistan border, especially after it has tried in vain to lobby the Pakistani side to launch a ground operation against the militants in North Waziristan. Despite the mounting pressure form the U.S. side, Pakistan has refused to launch a military operation in North Waziristan due to many concerns including lack of adequate military resources and more possible retaliatory attacks by militants in the country. This has left the United States no choice but to continue the drone strikes despite by the protest by the Pakistani side. Recently it is reported that the U.S. side, under the pressure of the Pakistani side, has agreed to inform the Pakistani side before drone strike is launched. However, there is no official confirmation about the report yet.