Officials: Suspected US Drone Crashes in Pakistan [View All]

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Source: AP/NYT

Officials: Suspected US Drone Crashes in Pakistan


Filed at 1:10 p.m. ET

PESHAWAR, Pakistan (AP) -- A suspected U.S. drone crashed in Pakistan's lawless tribal area near the Afghan border Sunday, a rare mishap for a program Washington has increasingly relied on to kill Taliban and al-Qaida militants, said intelligence officials and a local resident.

Local tribesman in North Waziristan were congratulating each other for shooting down the drone, said resident Saudur Rehman. But the Pakistani army rejected similar claims after a drone crashed in neighboring South Waziristan in 2008, saying it was a technical problem.

''I saw that the aircraft was coming down and finally crashed in an open area a distance from me,'' said Rehman, who indicated he heard gunfire just before the crash. ''Tribesmen are celebrating and congratulating each other for shooting it down.''

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North Waziristan is dominated by militant groups that stage cross-border attacks against U.S. and NATO troops in Afghanistan. One of those groups, the Haqqani network, an al-Qaida-linked Afghan Taliban faction, is believed to have helped orchestrate the Dec. 30 suicide bombing at a remote base in Afghanistan that killed seven CIA employees.

Read more: http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/2010/01/24/world/AP-AS-Pakistan.html