A US official has said that precise intelligence is the reason behind a step-up in drone attacks on the border between Pakistan and Afghanistan.
According to the anonymous official, "Our operational tempo has been up for a while now [and] we have good information driving it, and given the stakes involved, we hope to keep the pressure on as long as we can."
The threats posed in the area are “deadly”
according to the official, with the same mix of groups, including Al Qaeda, the
Haqqani network and the Afghan and Pakistani Taliban named.
While the US does not offer official comments on the drone strikes carried out in Pakistan, the anonymous source commented that: "the whole point of all this is to disrupt terrorist plots at whatever stage and wherever those plots may be focused."
This month has seem more drone attacks than any other month since the US began using the tactic, with at least 65 drone strikes in September. The unmanned drones are a subject of much contention in the US and in Pakistan, as they have been responsible for large numbers of civilian causalities in the Northern tribal regions. According to a Washington-based organization, the New America Foundation, the civilian death toll is over 1,000 but no official figures are forthcoming from the government.
While the Pakistani government seems to turn a blind eye to the drone strikes, less than a tenth of the Pakistani population support the strikes on Pakistani sovereign soil.
