Subscribe free to our newsletters via your
. 24/7 Space News .




UAV NEWS
Three US drone strikes kill 18 militants in Pakistan
by Staff Writers
Miranshah, Pakistan (AFP) Sept 8, 2010


Lebanese speaker warns relaunched talks could raise tensions
Beirut (AFP) Sept 8, 2010 - Lebanon's parliament speaker warned on Wednesday that the relaunched Middle East peace talks could raise tensions on the border with Israel and ignite clashes in Palestinian refugee camps. "These talks will no doubt cover (Palestinian) refugees, water and oil in the region," speaker Nabih Berri said in a statement. "All of this may... ignite clashes inside Lebanon's refugee camps and affect security in the south," said Berri, an ally of Lebanon's Islamic militant Hezbollah movement that opposes the peace negotiations.

Lebanon has not issued an official reaction to relaunched peace talks in Washington last week that marked the first direct negotiations in 20 months between Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas. They are due to meet again on September 14 in Egypt in a series of meetings to be held every two weeks that negotiators hope will lead to a final peace agreement within a year. The UN agency for Palestinian refugees (UNRWA) estimates Lebanon today houses 400,000 Palestinians, but Lebanese officials estimate a figure of 300,000. A dispute over a patch of trees last month ignited a border clash between Lebanese and Israeli troops that killed two Lebanese soldiers and a journalist as well as a senior Israeli officer.

Three separate US drone strikes in Pakistan's northwestern tribal district killed at least 18 militants on Wednesday, security officials said.

Washington has branded the rugged area on the Afghan border -- part of which has been hit by Pakistan's catastrophic flooding -- a global headquarters of Al-Qaeda and the most dangerous place on Earth.

Officials in Washington say the drone strikes are a vital tool needed to protect the 150,000 foreign troops in Afghanistan and have killed a number of high-value targets including Pakistani Taliban chief Baitullah Mehsud.

The third strike Wednesday again hit North Waziristan, the same tribal district targeted in the previous two drone attacks and a renowned hub for Taliban and Al-Qaeda-linked militants.

Dandey Darpakhel, a village five kilometres (three miles) from Miranshah, the main town in North Waziristan, was targeted twice and missiles destroyed two different compounds, killing 14 rebels.

In the other attack, a drone fired two missiles which struck a vehicle, killing four militants in Amboor Shaga village of Datta Khel town, 40 kilometres from Miranshah.

All three strikes were confirmed by intelligence officials in Miranshah, who also confirmed the death toll.

US forces have been waging a drone war against Taliban and Al-Qaeda-linked commanders in the northwestern tribal belt, where militants have carved out havens in mountains outside direct government control.

The US military does not as a rule confirm drone attacks, but its armed forces and the Central Intelligence Agency operating in Afghanistan are the only forces that deploy pilotless drones in the region.

More than 1,040 people have been killed in more than 100 drone strikes in Pakistan since August 2008, including a number of senior militants. However, the attacks fuel anti-American sentiment in the conservative Muslim country.

Al-Qaeda announced in June that its number three leader and Osama bin Laden's one-time treasurer Mustafa Abu al-Yazid had been killed in what security officials said appeared to be a drone strike in North Waziristan.

Under US pressure to crack down on Islamist havens along the Afghan border, Pakistan has in the past year significantly increased operations against militants in the area.

More than 3,700 people have been killed in the last three years in a series of suicide attacks and bomb explosions across Pakistan, many of them carried out by the Taliban and other Al-Qaeda-linked Islamist extremists.

.


Related Links
UAV News - Suppliers and Technology






Comment on this article via your Facebook, Yahoo, AOL, Hotmail login.

Share this article via these popular social media networks
del.icio.usdel.icio.us DiggDigg RedditReddit GoogleGoogle








UAV NEWS
First Global Hawk Lands In Guam
Beale AFB CA (SPX) Sep 07, 2010
In a stride forward for the RQ-4B Global Hawk remotely piloted aircraft program, the first aircraft landed at 9th Operations Group Det. 3 at Andersen Air Force Base, Guam, Sept. 1 after an 18 hour flight from here. The aircraft was flown by pilots and sensor operators from the 12th Reconnaissance Squadron here. The flight to Andersen AFB marked the surpassing of the 45, 000 flight-hour mar ... read more


UAV NEWS
Chandrayaan-2 Will Try Out New Ideas And Technologies

China Publishes Official Chinese Names For Places On The Moon

Arizona Stands In For The Moon And Mars

The Moon Puts On Camo

UAV NEWS
Opportunity Rover Reaches Halfway Point Of Long Trek

Next Mars Rover Stretches Robotic Arm

Missing Piece Inspires New Look At Mars Puzzle

Opportunity Studies Interesting Rocks

UAV NEWS
NASA Loves A Good Challenge - Not Business As Usual

ATHLETE Rover Steps Up To Long Desert Trek

Desert RATS 2010

Setting Sail In The Sun

UAV NEWS
China's Second Lunar Probe Chang'e-2 To Reach Lunar Orbit Faster Than Chang'e-1

China Finishes Construction Of First Unmanned Space Module

China Contributes To Space-Based Information Access A Lot

China Sends Research Satellite Into Space

UAV NEWS
ISS Crew Prepares For Cargo Craft

Module To Get A Home In Space

Canadian to command space station in 2013

Russian Cosmonauts Long For Hot Showers On ISS

UAV NEWS
Vega Launcher Production Contracts Signed By ESA, Arianespace And ELV

Russia Sends Three Satellites Into Space

Globalstar Satellites Are Readied For Soyuz Launch

China Launches Satellite Sinosat-6 For TV, Radio Live Broadcast

UAV NEWS
Can We Spot Volcanoes On Alien Worlds

Chemical basis for first life theorized

UF Astronomers Find Potassium In Giant Planet's Atmosphere

A Dusty, Cloudy Exoplanet

UAV NEWS
Aluminum 'nanometal' is strong as steel

46 million dollars in funding for digital textbook reader

Researchers 'read' words in brain signals

Apple relaxes rules for iPhone-iPod-iPad applications




The content herein, unless otherwise known to be public domain, are Copyright 1995-2014 - Space Media Network. AFP, UPI and IANS news wire stories are copyright Agence France-Presse, United Press International and Indo-Asia News Service. ESA Portal Reports are copyright European Space Agency. All NASA sourced material is public domain. Additional copyrights may apply in whole or part to other bona fide parties. Advertising does not imply endorsement,agreement or approval of any opinions, statements or information provided by Space Media Network on any Web page published or hosted by Space Media Network. Privacy Statement