Dre Nishtar (N. Waziristan) Drone Attack IV – May 2012
Date: 05/05/2012
Location: North Waziristan Agency, FATA, Pakistan
Perpetrators: United States
Victims: 10 Killed (10 civilians), 3 Injured
What Happened?
05 May 2012: A midnight U.S. drone strike destroyed a house in the Guldar Kot area of Dre Nishtar in Shawal Tehsil. CNN alleged that the casualties were all ‘suspected militants’, whereas a local news agency, Pakistan Observer, reported from the ground that the victims were all local tribesmen / civilians. This creates a strong likelihood that civilians were killed in this attack.
The drones continued to loiter in the sky after the attack, discouraging rescuers from combing the area for survivors. The CIA was known to deliberately attack rescuers in double-tap strikes. This high-casualty drone strike happened when relations between Islamabad and Washington were at an all-time low.
A few days earlier, the U.S. counter-terrorism advisor John Brennan had remarked that drone strikes would continue unabated, “Sometimes you have to take a life to save a life.”
Similarly, Leon Panetta, the U.S. Defence Secretary, remarked that “the United States is going to defend itself under any circumstances.”
The names and identities of the civilian victims have never been independently collected, leaving this U.S. drone attack undocumented.
Sources: Pakistan Observer, CNN, Dawn, Frontier Post
OMM-PK312