Drone strikes in Pakistan

Drone strikes in Pakistan
Part of the Insurgency in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, the War in Afghanistan and the War on terror
An MQ-9 Reaper landing in Afghanistan.
Date 18 June 2004 – 4 July 2018[3][4][5][6][7] Location Federal Tribal Areas, Pakistan Result American operational success[8] Most recent drone strike launched in July 2018. 81 high-level insurgent leaders and thousands of low-level insurgents killed[9] Deaths of Afghan Taliban head Akhtar Mansour, and successive TTP heads Baitullah Mehsud and Hakimullah Mehsud. Deaths of hundreds of Pakistanis civilians. Destruction of numerous insurgent camps and safe havens 5 drone strikes in 2017, followed by one in 2018 and none in 2019[10] Substantial reduction in insurgent activity by 2017.[11] 430 drone strikes confirmed[12]
Belligerents
Pakistan[1][2]  United States  USAF CIA Supported by:  United Kingdom	Taliban Tehrik-i-Taliban Pakistan TNSM Haqqani network al-Qaeda Lashkar-e-Islam Foreign Mujahideen Uzbek Islamic Movement Turkistan Islamic Party Islamic State affiliates
Commanders and leaders
United States President Donald Trump (2017–18) Barack Obama (2009–17) George W. Bush (2004–09) United Kingdom Prime Minister Theresa May (2016–2019) David Cameron (2010–16) Gordon Brown (2007–10) Tony Blair (2004–07)	Tehrik-i-Taliban Maulana Fazlullah † Hakimullah Mehsud † Baitullah Mehsud † Nek Muhammad Wazir † Abdullah Mehsud † Hafiz Gul Bahadur Adnan Rashid Nasib Zada †[13] Qari Hussain † Maulvi Nazir † Wali-ur-Rehman † Khan Saeed Mehsud Sajna † Mangal Bagh † Omar Khalid Khorasani † Faqir Mohammed (POW)[14] Sufi Muhammad (POW) al-Qaeda Ayman al-Zawahiri † Osama bin Laden † Muhsin Musa Matwalli Atwah † Abu Laith al-Libi † Khalid Habib † Mohammad Hasan Khalil al-Hakim † Fahid Mohammed Ally Msalam  † Sheikh Ahmed Salim Swedan † Saad bin Laden † Abdullah Said al Libi † Saeed al-Masri † Ahmed Mohammed Hamed Ali † Sheikh Fateh †[15] Ilyas Kashmiri  † Atiyah Abd al-Rahman † Abu Yahya al-Libi † Hassan Ghul † Abu-Zaid al Kuwaiti † Farman Ali Shinwari † Said Bahaji † Adnan Gulshair el Shukrijumah †[16] Ustad Ahmad Farooq † Adam Yahiye Gadahn † Matiur Rehman † Hamza bin Laden † Abu Khalil al-Madani † Asim Umar † Abu Muhsin al-Masri † Muhammad Naeem Noor Khan † ISIL Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi † Hafiz Saeed Khan †[17] Abdul Rahim Muslim Dost (2014–2015)[18][19] Usman Ghazi †[20] IMU Group Usman Ghazi † Abu Usman Adil † Tohir Yuldashev † Najmiddin Jalolov †
Strength
c. 30 UAVs MQ-9 Reaper[21]	Unknown
Casualties and losses
9 (CIA personnel)	c. 2,000–3,500 militants killed[22][23][24]
Civilian deaths: 158–965 Long War Journal: 158 civilians killed New America Foundation: 245–303 civilians killed Bureau of Investigative Journalism: 424–969 civilians killed

Between 2004 and 2018, the United States government attacked thousands of targets in northwest Pakistan using unmanned aerial vehicles (drones) operated by the United States Air Force under the operational control of the Central Intelligence Agency's Special Activities Division.^[25][26] Most of these attacks were on targets in the Federally Administered Tribal Areas (now part of the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province) along the Afghan border in northwest Pakistan. These strikes began during the administration of United States President George W. Bush, and increased substantially under his successor Barack Obama.^[27] Some in the media referred to the attacks as a "drone war".^[28][29] The George W. Bush administration officially denied the extent of its policy; in May 2013, the Obama administration acknowledged for the first time that four US citizens had been killed in the strikes.^[30] In December 2013, the National Assembly of Pakistan unanimously approved a resolution against US drone strikes in Pakistan, calling them a violation of "the charter of the United Nations, international laws and humanitarian norms."^[31]

Pakistan's former Prime Minister, Nawaz Sharif, had repeatedly demanded an end to the strikes, stating: "The use of drones is not only a continual violation of our territorial integrity but also detrimental to our resolve and efforts at eliminating terrorism from our country".^[32] However, despite the public opposition of Pakistani officials, multiple former Prime Ministers gave covert permission to the United States to carry out these attacks.^[33][34] The Peshawar High Court has ruled that the attacks are illegal, inhumane, violate the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and constitute a war crime.^[35] The Obama administration disagreed, contending that the attacks did not violate international law and that the method of attack was precise and effective.^[32][36] Notable targets of the strikes included Baitullah Mehsud, the leader of the Pakistani Taliban (killed in a strike in South Waziristan on 5 August 2009), Hakimullah Mehsud, Mehsud's successor (killed in a strike on 1 November 2013), and Akhtar Mansour, leader of the Afghan Taliban (killed in a strike on 21 May 2016 in Ahmad Wal, Pakistan).

The operations in Pakistan were closely tied to a related drone campaign in Afghanistan, along the same border area. These strikes have killed 3,798–5,059 militants and 161–473 civilians. Among the militant deaths are hundreds of high-level leaders of the Afghan Taliban, the Pakistani Taliban, the Islamic State, Al-Qaeda, the Haqqani Network, and other organizations, with 70 Taliban leaders killed in one ten-day period of May 2017 alone.^[37]