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Geopolitics

U.S. Drone Kills 7 In Pakistan In First Strike Since Vote, Obama's Speech

DAWN, NEWS PAKISTAN, PAKISTAN TODAY (Pakistan), WASHINGTON POST (U.S.), REUTERS

Worldcrunch

MIRAMSHAH - At least seven people were killed in a reported U.S. drone attack early Wednesday in northeastern Pakistan. The drone fired two missiles at a mud-built house in the tribal region of North Waziristan, which is considered a bastion of Taliban and al-Qaeda linked militants, says Pakistan Today.

No information is yet available about the identity of the victims. according to News Pakistan,

This attack comes at a sensitive moment, as Pakistan’s newly elected government prepares to take office amid growing debate both there and in the United States about the CIA-operated drone program, writes the Washington Post.

Dawn reports that incoming prime minister Nawaz Sharif, who will take power in the coming days, has deemed the drone strikes a "challenge" to Pakistan’s sovereignty, saying Washington must take Pakistani concerns seriously.

A Pakistani Foreign Ministry official condemned all such strikes."Any drone strike is against the territorial integrity and sovereignty of Pakistan and we condemn it," the official, who declined to be identified, told Reuters.

Last Thursday, President Obama, in his most expansive public discussion on drones, defended their targeted killings as both effective and legal. Ahead of the address, writes Dawn, Obama signed new ”presidential policy guidelines” aimed at illustrating more clearly to Congress and the public the standards the US applies before carrying out drone attacks.

Screengrab via YouTube expand=1]

U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry defended drone strikes during his visit to Ethiopia on Sunday. “The only people we fire at are confirmed terror targets, at the highest level. We don’t just fire a drone at somebody we think is a terrorist,” he said, adding that strikes are ruled out if there could be collateral damage.

The United States was recently identified in a U.N. report as the world’s No. 1 user of targeted killings, according to News Pakistan, mainly because of its reliance on drone attacks in Pakistan and Afghanistan.

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Photograph of Police and emergency services working at the site of a shooting in Jerusalem that saw two gunmen kill three people at a bus station in the Israeli capital.

Police and emergency services are working at the site of a shooting in Jerusalem that saw two gunmen kill three people at a bus station in the Israeli capital.

Anne-Sophie Goninet and Bertrand Hauger

👋 ନମସ୍କାର*

Welcome to Thursday, where Hamas claims responsibility for a shooting that killed three people in Jerusalem just hours after Israel extended a ceasefire in Gaza, Henry Kissinger dies at age 100, and Singapore gets some company at the top of the world’s most expensive cities. Meanwhile, Turin-based daily La Stampa’s correspondent at the Israel-Gaza border describes conditions amid the fragile ceasefire.

[*Namaskār - Odia, India]

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