In our thinking, the motivation for this wide-scale war is that Pashtun-stan (as imagined by the nationalists) will not be content with a joined-up South-East Afghanistan and North-West Pakistan, the access to sea is a must. Thus Karachi is so to speak, the jewel in the crown, the real prize in the battle.
……
The
last drone attack in the country had been carried out on Dec 25 last
year near Miramshah, the regional headquarters. Three suspected
militants had been killed in that attack on a compound in Qutab Khel
area. Residents said that US drones kept hovering over North Waziristan throughout the day. The missile explosions were heard up to 20km away, they said.
The government had urged the United States to stop drone strikes in the tribal areas during its negotiations with the Taliban.
According
to AFP, an intelligence official in Miramshah said the missiles had
struck a pick-up truck carrying six militants and laden with explosives. “Four of them were Uzbeks and two were Punjabi Taliban,” he said.
The
militants had parked their truck along the outer wall of the compound —
both of which were destroyed and remained ablaze for some time.
Another
security official said the authorities had intercepted a radio message
about the attack in which “one of the militants was asking others to
reach the site and search for any one injured in the strike and also to
dig up the bodies”.
The area west of Miramshah where Wednesday’s
attack was carried out is considered a stronghold of the Al Qaeda-linked
Haqqani network.
The strike came as Pakistani Taliban said that
Uzbek militants had been involved in the siege of the Karachi airport on
Sunday night in which 37 people, including the 10 attackers, had been
killed.
……
Link: http://www.dawn.com/news/1112127/drone-attack-kills-4-uzbek-militants
…..
regards