KABUL - Despite the controversy that has surrounded them, U.S. drone strikes in Afghanistan and across the border in the Pakistani tribal belt have been crucial in weakening militant groups and reducing their safe havens in the more inaccessible parts of the region, Afghan security officials have said.
U.S. drone attacks have been running for years, serving as the main arm of the U.S. counterterrorism mission in Pakistan. American drones have recently targeted militant hideouts in Miran Shah, Mir Ali, Haidarkhail, Essa Khail and North Waziristan. While these attacks assist the Afghan security forces' struggle against the Taliban in Afghanistan because it ensures insurgents are no longer untouchable once they retreat across the border to re-group, re-arm and strategize, drone activity in Afghanistan itself has also been important.
Fazel Ahmad Sherzad, the Police Chief of eastern Nangarhar province, told TOLOnews on Monday that more than 17 drone attacks were conducted in Khogyani, Pachera Gam, Chaparhar districts and some other regions of the province over the past two months. He claimed they killed roughly 69 militants and wounded eleven others, while not leaving a single civilian casualty.
"Drone attacks have been effective in curbing the militants," Chief Sherzad said. "When the Taliban fighters seek refuge inside the civilian homes, in that case, it is only the drones that can target the Taliban militants without posing a harm to civilians," he added.
Washington's drone warfare has traditionally received a lot of criticism in Pakistan and Afghanistan for causing civilian casualties. However, claims around civilian versus combatant casualties are always marred by speculation and unsubstantiated claims on both sides of the issue. What is indisputable, however, is that drones have been critical in targeting specific militant leaders and hideouts that would otherwise be near impossible to reach.
Dawlat Waziri, the deputy spokesman for the Afghan Ministry of Defense (MoD), said drone warfare was essential for effective intelligence operations. "We cannot use drones in war fronts, but drones maintain a crucial role in the intelligence war and they can eliminate targets accurately," he said.
Over the past eleven months, more than 50 drone attacks were conducted in the eastern province of Kunar. And according to the Kunar Police Chief, the attacks killed up to 150 armed opponents and wounded another 58. "The attacks conducted by drones have been effective in the province, because militants exist in some remote regions and the drones can easily target them," Police Chief Abdul Habib Saidkhaili said.
Officials in Nuristan province, on condition of anonymity, confirmed that over the past year more than 40 drone strikes were carried out in the province.
According to political and military experts, drone strikes have recently increased in the eastern part of Afghanistan and across the border in Pakistan in part because the government in Islamabad has become more supportive of the U.S. strategy. "The main reason that the drone attacks increased in the eastern region of the country is that the militants exist in these areas and also it was a call from Pakistan to the U.S. for suppressing the militants," political analyst Jawed Kohistani told TOLOnews.
In recent months, Pakistan appears to have turned over a new leaf in its approach to the Taliban insurgency. Military and political leaders in Islamabad have taken concerted action to support peace talks between the Taliban and the Kabul government, as well as taken steps to curb militancy within their own borders. (Tolonews)