Afghanistan

US admits that drones target Pakistan

To Download this program click here

US President Barack Obama has made an unusual admission, confirming that unmanned drones regularly strike suspected militants in Pakistan's tribal areas.

Mr Obama called the strikes a "targeted focussed effort at people who are on a list of active terrorists".

Asked in a social media debate about the use of drone strikes, which have increased in intensity during his presidency, he said "a lot of these strikes have been in the Fata", or Pakistan's Federally Administered Tribal Areas.

The strikes target "al-Qaeda suspects who are up in very tough terrain along the border between Afghanistan and Pakistan," Mr Obama added.

"For us to be able to get them in another way would involve probably a lot more intrusive military action than the ones we're already engaging in."

Few details are known about the covert US drone operation, which is run by the CIA and targets al-Qaeda and Taliban militants in the mountainous areas along the Afghan-Pakistan border.

The US does not routinely speak publicly about drone operations.

According to the AFP news agency, 64 US missile strikes were reported in the area in 2011, down from 101 in 2010.

They often cause outrage in Pakistan, where many assert that the strikes cause indiscriminate civilian deaths and injuries.

Meanwhile, at least 13 people have been killed in air strikes on militants from al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula in southern Yemen, residents and officials say.

One tribal leader said at least four of the dead were local al-Qaeda leaders, the Reuters news agency reports.

They were reportedly attacked by a drone in Abyan province.