ISLAMABAD: The Pakistan Army on Tuesday rejected a report published in a US newspaper claiming that it carried out drone strikes in country’s northwestern areas last month, describing it a distortion of facts and an attempt to weaken the country’s stance on drone strikes.
“Such an accusation is a distortion of the facts and seems to be aimed at diluting Pakistan’s stance on drone strikes,” Inter Services Public Relations (ISPR) spokesman said in a statement.
Two suspected US drone strikes had been reported in early February in the North and South Waziristan tribal regions by local and international media.
The first strike on Feb 6 targeted a suspected compound in North Waziristan agency killing three unidentified people.
While, the second strike on Feb 8 carried out on the border of the North and South Waziristan tribal regions was reported to have targeted a compound owned by a local Tehrik-i-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) commander, the reports said.
Two Al Qaeda men among eight other militants were killed in attack carried on Feb, Intelligence officials said. The rest, sources said, were local Tehrik-i-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) fighters.
The report, however, published by the New York Times on Tuesday quoted unnamed US intelligence officials as denying the US carried out the attacks and instead accused Pakistani forces of carrying out the strikes.
Rejecting the report, the ISPR spokesman said that Pakistan’s security forces didn’t carry out any operation, including air strikes, in the area on dates mentioned in the news report.
