U.S. drone strike kills 6 in Pakistan

Monday's suspected drone strike was the 37th this year, compared to 111 in all for 2010.Intelligence officials say the drone fired on a militants' vehicleThe Monday strike is the 37th so far this year

Islamabad, Pakistan (CNN) -- A suspected U.S. drone strike in Pakistan's tribal region killed six suspected militants on Monday, intelligence officials told CNN.

Two Pakistani intelligence officials said the suspected drone fired two missiles on a militants' vehicle in the Shawal area of South Waziristan, one of the seven districts of Pakistan's volatile tribal region bordering Afghanistan.

Based on a count by the CNN Islamabad bureau, Monday's suspected drone strike was the 37th this year, compared to 111 in all of 2010.

The intelligence officials asked not to be named because they were not authorized to speak to the media.

CNN

EADS says Europe needs only one drone (Reuters)

LE BOURGET, France (Reuters) – Europe needs to co-operate on the next generation of military drones or it will repeat costly divisions which led to rival combat jets competing for the same orders, aerospace group EADS warned on Sunday.

The warning on the eve of the Paris Air Show follows a decision by Britain and France to push other defense companies into working on an armed drone, which could leave an alternative project in which EADS (EAD.PA) is involved out in the cold.

"We are not pleased by the development that we have two potentially competing projects in Europe, where obviously Europe is not a position to come up with 300 million euros ($425 million) for the next few years to develop one project," Stefan Zoller, head of EADS' defense and security unit Cassidian, said.

EADS has spent years developing the Talarion unmanned aerial vehicle at its own expense in the hope of winning an order from the project's instigators France, Germany and Spain.

However, France's Dassault Aviation (AVMD.PA) and Britain's BAE Systems (BAES.L) have stepped up plans for their own drone under a Franco-British defense pact signed last year, provoking anger and frustration from EADS.

"Why abandon such a project... to redo it all again? From my perspective, it's ridiculous," Zoller told journalists.

"We are ready to go," he said. "It's a pity that what you see on the European side, again, is potential competition that will delay the execution of such programmes."

France pulled out of the Eurofighter joint fighter jet programme in 1985 to work on its own project -- the Rafale, built by Dassault. The two combat planes are competing head to head for an $11 billion contract in India.

Although EADS owns almost 50 percent from Dassault, inherited from the French government, it has no sway over the company and its fighters jets are fierce arms market rivals.

The Rafale was conceived as a purely French military project as a gesture of national sovereignty but France has since rejoined the NATO command and analysts say economic conditions mean no nation can now afford to build a fighter alone.

Current drone developments could pave the way for a future generation of fighter jets, which could be unmanned.

Zoller called on France, Germany, Spain and Turkey to come up with the 300 million euros that it needs to get a prototype of the Talarion in the air for 2014.

EADS has previously threatened to stop working on Talarion if would-be purchasers do not share some of the research costs.

Dassault said earlier this month its Telemos drone could be ready to enter service in 2016, provided French and British ministers authorize the start of the programme.

Zoller said once EADS's own protoype was running, there could be an opportunity for France and the UK to join in with the Talarion and that he could foresee a Talarion customised to British or even Anglo-French requirements.

However the Talarion has been criticised by military planners for its lack of weapons as European nations seek to fill a gap in capacity offered by U.S.-supplied Predators.

Zoller said the Talarion could be used in numerous missions. (Additional reporting by Cyril Altmeyer, Editing by Tim Hepher)

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4 killed in suspected drone strike

Based on a CNN count, Wednesday's suspected drone strike was the 33rd this year compared to 111 in all of 2010.NEW: Ten militants killed, sources sayA suspected U.S. drone strike happened in Pakistan, officials saidThe strike was in Wana, South Waziristan

Islamabad, Pakistan (CNN) -- A suspected U.S. drone strike in Pakistan's tribal region killed 10 suspected militants on Wednesday, two intelligence officials told CNN.

The suspected drone fired four missiles on two militants' hideouts in the area of Wana in South Waziristan, one of the seven districts of Pakistan's volatile tribal region bordering Afghanistan.

Based on a count by the CNN Islamabad bureau, Wednesday's suspected drone strike was the 33rd this year compared to 111 in all of 2010.

The intelligence officials asked not to be named because they were not authorized to speak to the media.

CNN's Nasir Habib contributed to this report.

CNN

Al Qaeda's 'military brain' killed in Pakistan drone strike

(CNN) -- The man described by counterterrorism officials as al Qaeda's "military brain," Ilyas Kashmiri, was killed in a drone strike Friday night in Pakistan, a spokesman for his group, the jihadist Harakat-ul-Jihad-Islami, said.

Pakistani and U.S. officials, however, said they have not confirmed Kashmiri's death.

Kashmiri was killed, along with some aides, in a strike at 11:15 p.m., spokesman Abu Hanzla Kashar said.

"The oppressor U.S. is our only target and, God willing, we will take revenge on the U.S. soon with full force," he said.

A senior Pakistani military official said that in all, nine were killed by the drone strike. The official reiterated that they had not confirmed Kashmiri's demise.

Kashmiri, who was known to operate in North Waziristan, had moved to South Waziristan and was seen at the site of the attack on Friday, the official said.

If confirmed, his death would be the first major kill or capture since Osama Bin Laden, and the highest profile drone target since Beitullah Mehsud in 2009.

It could also be seen as an embarrassment for Pakistanis, who have twice in just over one month, had a major al Qaeda figure killed on their territory without their participation.

U.S. drones now operate entirely autonomously in Pakistan, a Pakistani intelligence source has told CNN. Whereas before the United States cooperated with Pakistan and used their intelligence, today, the Americans have an intelligence network that allows them to go after terrorists unilaterally.

Kashmiri, a veteran jihadist, is considered one of the most dangerous men in the world by counterterrorism officials on three continents.

He was commander of "Brigade 313" of Harakat-ul-Jihad-Islami, which has formed a close relationship with al Qaeda.

Kashmiri is also said to have ties with David Coleman Headley, the U.S. citizen who confessed to helping scout

targets for the Mumbai attack in November 2008. After his arrest, Headley said he had twice met Kashmiri.

During questioning by India's National Intelligence Agency, which was given access to him in Chicago, Illinois, in June 2010, Headley said he'd been taken to Pakistan's tribal territories to meet Kashmiri early in 2009.

A copy of the interrogation obtained by CNN reveals that Kashmiri sent Headley on another trip to survey targets in India. One place he said he videotaped was a bakery that was later attacked in Pune in February 2010.

Kashmiri in his early years fought the Indians in the disputed territory of Kashmir and the Russians in Afghanistan, where he lost an eye.

He famously escaped from an Indian jail and went to fight with a unit of Pakistan's special forces. Eventually, he fell out with his sponsors in the Pakistani military, and moved his operations to North Waziristan.

At one point, he was arrested in connection with an attempt to assassinate Pakistan's president, Gen. Pervez Musharraf, in 2003. For reasons unknown, Kashmiri was released a short time later.

CNN's Nasir Habib, Nick Paton Walsh and Tim Lister contributed to this report.

CNN

Key al Qaeda man killed in Pakistan by drone strike (Reuters)

(Reuters) – A U.S. drone strike killed a senior al Qaeda figure in Pakistan after a tipoff from local intelligence, a Pakistani intelligence official said on Saturday.

The elimination of Ilyas Kashmiri, regarded as one of the most dangerous militants in the world, appeared to be another coup for the United States after American special forces killed Osama bin Laden in a garrison town close to Islamabad on May 2.

Islamabad's cooperation in the killing could help repair ties with Washington, badly damaged when it was discovered that bin Laden had apparently been living in Pakistan for years.

"We are sure that he (Kashmiri) has been killed. Now we are trying to retrieve the bodies. We want to get photographs of the bodies," said the Pakistani intelligence official.

Kashmiri was wrongly reported to have been killed in a September 2009 strike by a U.S. drone.

A Pakistani television station quoted the group Kashmiri headed, Harkat-ul Jihad Islami (HUJI) which is allied to al Qaeda, as saying the latest report was true.

"We confirm that our Amir (leader) and commander in chief, Mohammad Ilyas Kashmiri, along with other companions, was martyred in an American drone strike on June 3, 2011, at 11:15 p.m.," Abu Hanzla Kashir, who identified himself as a HUJI spokesman, said in a statement faxed to the station.

"God willing ... America will very soon see our full revenge. Our only target is America."

The authenticity of the statement could not be verified.

Kashmiri's death is good news for Pakistan, which has failed to subdue militants seeking to topple its unpopular government despite a series of army offensives against their strongholds.

"It will be a very big blow to militants and Pakistan will be a major beneficiary because he was behind attacks on Pakistani defense and military installations," said retired Brigadier Asad Munir, a former Pakistani intelligence officer.

Kashmiri, said to be a former Pakistani military officer, and other militants were with an Afghan Taliban member involved in liaison with the Pakistani Taliban when the drone missile struck, said the intelligence official.

He said they were in a house in South Waziristan, close to the Afghan border in northwest Pakistan, that was believed to be the headquarters of Kashmiri's group, which has been described as an operational wing of al Qaeda.

"We were closing in on him and he switched off his satellite phone and cellphone and he wanted to cross the border to Afghanistan to find a hiding place," the official added. "It was a tipoff by us since we were closely monitoring his movements."

Five of his close allies were also killed in the attack by a pilotless drone aircraft, along with two other militants, intelligence officials said.

U.S. ASKED PAKISTAN TO GO AFTER KASHMIRI

A U.S. embassy spokesman said he could not confirm the killing of Kashmiri or whether Pakistan provided support for an operation.

The killing of bin Laden aroused international suspicions that Pakistani authorities had been complicit in hiding him, and led to domestic criticism of them for failing to detect or stop the U.S. team that killed him.

Kashmiri was on a list which the United States gave Pakistan of senior militants it wanted killed or captured, said a Pakistani official.

Drone strikes have increased under the Obama administration, sometimes killing civilians and fuelling anti-American sentiment in Pakistan.

While Pakistani leaders publicly criticize the attacks, analysts say killing high-value targets like Kashmiri would not be possible without Pakistani intelligence.

Washington reiterated its call on Pakistan, a major recipient of U.S. aid, to crack down harder on militancy after it was discovered that bin Laden had been living about a two-hour drive from intelligence headquarters.

The U.S. Department of State has labeled Kashmiri a "specially designated global terrorist."

Last year, the U.S. attorney's office quoted a Chicago taxi driver charged with sending money to Kashmiri as saying the Pakistani militant had told him he "wanted to train operatives to conduct attacks in the United States."

Kashmiri battled Soviet occupation troops in the 1980s in Afghanistan, where he lost an eye. His group also fought Indian rule in the disputed Kashmir region.

He has been linked to attacks including the 2008 rampage through the Indian city of Mumbai which killed 166 people.

"This will be a huge loss for al Qaeda," said Kamran Bokhari of global intelligence firm STRATFOR. "Everyone will benefit, the United States, Pakistan and India."

The Pakistani media has speculated that Kashmiri was the mastermind of an attack on the PNS Mehran naval base in Karachi last month which humiliated the Pakistani military.

In that operation, six militants held off 100 security forces, including commandos, for 16 hours.

(Additional reporting by Saud Mehsud in Dera Ismail Khan, Hafiz Wazir in South Waziristan, Faisal Aziz in Karachi and Myra MacDonald in London; writing by Michael Georgy; editing by Andrew Roche)

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U.S. drone strikes pick up in Pakistan

Drone strikes in the last 11 days have averaged one each two daysThat's up from an average of one every six days before the bin Laden raidThe increase doesn't suggest new intelligence from bin Laden raid, an analyst says

(CNN) -- The United States has sent drones to strike at suspected militants in Pakistan five times in the last 11 days, nearly triple the pace prior to the successful May 1 raid to kill Osama bin Laden.

The latest strike occurred Monday, when a suspected U.S. drone strike in Pakistan's tribal region killed 10 suspected militants, Pakistani intelligence officials told CNN.

Two intelligence officials who asked not to be named because they were not authorized to speak to the media said the suspected drone fired two missiles on a militant's hideout in the area of Mir Ali of North Waziristan, one of the seven districts of Pakistan's volatile tribal region bordering Afghanistan.

The Monday strike was the 25th suspected U.S. drone strike this year, according to a CNN count.

Between January 1 and May 5, the United States carried out 20 strikes, an average of about one every six days. From May 6 to Monday, the U.S. carried out five strikes, or an average of one about every two days.

There were 111 such strikes in 2010, according to the count.

The sudden increase is not likely due to new intelligence gained from the bin Laden raid, said Bill Roggio, a military affairs analyst and editor of the Long War Journal.

The United States has gone through periods of high-tempo drone strikes, Roggio said, as well as lulls such as the one the last few months. Roggio said the recent lull was likely caused by tension over the arrest of CIA contractor Raymond Davis and other disputes between the countries' intelligence services.

With the Davis issue resolved and the bin Laden raid behind the U.S., the country's leaders don't feel as constrained to tamp down attacks inside Pakistan as they did the last two months, he said.

"This uptick is not unusual from a recent historical perspective, he said. "What has happened, since the bin Laden raid, is that the U.S. has not felt pressured to dial back the attacks due to Pakistani sensibilities."

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U.S. drone attack kills 15 in Pakistan tribal area

PESHAWAR, Pakistan (AP) — The U.S. carried out its first drone attack in Pakistan since Osama bin Laden's death in an American raid this week, killing 15 people in a hail of missiles near the Afghan border Friday, Pakistani intelligence officials said.

The strike targeted a vehicle suspected of carrying foreign militants in the North Waziristan tribal area, an al-Qaida and Taliban stronghold that has been subject to frequent missile attacks, said the officials, speaking on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to talk to the media.

The aircraft fired eight missiles at the vehicle as it drove near a roadside restaurant, killing at least 15 people, including foreign militants, said the officials. At least one civilian died when the missiles damaged the restaurant and a nearby home, they said.

It was unclear whether intelligence gleaned from the U.S. commando raid that killed bin Laden on Monday played a part in the drone strike.

Drone attacks are extremely unpopular in Pakistan, and the most recent attack could further increase tensions between the U.S. and Pakistan that have spiked in the wake of bin Laden's death.

Many U.S. officials have expressed skepticism of claims by Pakistani officials that they didn't know where bin Laden was hiding — even though he was found in a compound in the army town of Abbottabad, only about a two hours' drive from the capital.

The U.S. refuses to publicly acknowledge the covert CIA drone program in Pakistan, but officials have said privately that the attacks have killed many senior al-Qaeda and Taliban commanders.

Pakistani officials regularly condemn the attacks as violations of the country's sovereignty. But many are believed to privately support the program, and some of the drones are suspected of taking off from inside Pakistan.

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Obama OKs use of armed drone aircraft in Libya

By Brendan Smialowski, Getty Images

Defense Secretary Robert Gates speaks during a briefing at the Pentagon on Thursday.

EnlargeCloseBy Brendan Smialowski, Getty Images

Defense Secretary Robert Gates speaks during a briefing at the Pentagon on Thursday.

It also is the first time that drones will have been used for airstrikes since the conflict began on March 19, although they have routinely been flying surveillance missions, Defense Secretary Robert Gates told reporters at a Pentagon briefing Thursday.

He said the United States will provide up to two 24-hour combat air patrols each day by the unmanned Predators.

Marine Gen. James Cartwright, vice chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said the drones can help counteract the pro-Moammar Gadhafi forces' tactic of traveling in civilian vehicles that make it difficult to distinguish them from rebel forces.

STORY: Libya rebels claim border post control"What they will bring that is unique to the conflict is their ability to get down lower, therefore to be able to get better visibility on targets that have started to dig themselves into defensive positions," Cartwright said. "They are uniquely suited for urban areas."

He added, "It's very difficult to pick friend from foe. So a vehicle like the Predator that can get down lower and can get IDs better, helps us."

Gates rejected the notion that the approval of drone strikes means that the U.S. will get pulled slowly back into a more active combat role, despite Obama's vow merely to provide support for NATO.

U.S. forces played a lead role in the early days of the conflict, launching an onslaught of cruise missiles and bombs against Gadhafi's surface-to-air missile sites and advancing Gadhafi's troops.

With American forces stretched by the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, as well as the humanitarian operations in Japan, the Pentagon turned the mission over to NATO, saying it would do only limited airstrikes to take out air defenses. The United States, said Obama,no longer would do airstrikes to protect the civilian population.

Gates said that bringing in the Predators will give NATO a critical capability that the U.S. uniquely can contribute.

"I think this is a very limited additional role on our part, but it does provide some additional capabilities to NATO," said Gates. "And if we can make a modest contribution with these armed Predators, we'll do it. … I don't think any of us see that as mission creep."

He said Obama has been clear that there will be no U.S. boots on the ground, and the main strike role would belong to the allies.

The first Predator mission since Obama's go-ahead was flown Thursday, but the aircraft, armed with Hellfire missiles, turned back due to poor weather conditions without firing any of its munitions, said Cartwright.

Gates, who publicly expressed skepticism about getting involved militarily in Libya before Obama endorsed the limited intervention, said "the real work" of overthrowing Gadhafi will have to be done by the Libyans themselves.

While he acknowledged the conflict "is likely to take a while," Gates also said the continuing sanctions, arms embargo and NATO-led offensive have weakened Gadhafi's military and eaten away at his supplies and cash. Over the long term, Gates said, that will hurt Gadhafi's ability to strike back at opposition forces, if they should rise up again in other cities.

At the same time, however, Gates said the administration's decision to provide $25 million in nonlethal military assistance to the rebels did not signal a deeper U.S. commitment to anti-Gadhafi forces whose makeup, objectives and motives still are not fully understood in Washington.

The aid, he said, is not high-end military equipment but rather a hodgepodge of things like uniforms and canteens.

"I'm not worried about our canteen technology falling into the wrong hands," he joked.

Asked how long he believes it will take the NATO-led air campaign to succeed, Gates replied, "The honest answer to that is, nobody knows."

In other comments, Gates did not rule out major military program cuts to meet Obama's goal to slash another $400 billion from U.S. national security spending over the next 12 years. But he laid out some programs he believes are vital, including the new Air Force refueling tanker and the replacement of some Navy ships.

"The worst of all possible worlds, in my view, is to give the entire Department of Defense a haircut, basically (saying) everybody is going to cut X percent," said Gates.

Instead, he said the Pentagon must lay out options and the risks involved if particular cuts are made and how they would affect military missions.

He added that he does not know how much of the cut the Pentagon will be expected to take.

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