Pakistan army practises shooting drone aircraft

[Coventina]

Source: International Herald-Tribune

Pakistani soldiers practised shooting at pilotless "drone" aircraft on Friday, the military said a day after the government lodged a protest with the U.S. ambassador over drone missile strikes in Pakistani territory.

Anti-aircraft guns and short-range surface-to-air missiles were used during the exercise conducted at a desert range near the city of Muzaffargarh in the central Pubjab province.

"The elements of Army Air Defence demonstrated their shooting skills by targeting the drones flying at different altitudes," the military said in a statement.

Air defence commander Lieutenant-General Ashraf Saleem praised the "precision and agility" of the gunners.



Read more: http://www.iht.com/articles/reuters/2008/11/21/asia/OUKWD-UK-PAKISTAN-DRONES.php

[HysteryDiagnosis]

1. When they do develop their own drones it will be like kite fighting

on steroids. Imagine if that immortal Star Trek where the wars were fought on computers, much like World of Warcraft, and the casualties were pixels instead of people. Now I know the Star Trek episode had the people marching into some sort of execution machine to satisfy the "kills" in the computer simulation, I'm just trying to make a point here.

[TheCoxwain]

2. How dare they? .. They received 10 FUCKING billion from us for fighting terrorists

and how dare Bush Shovel money to those snakes?

[pimpbot]

3. Its a ruse...

Only to make it appear they are "fighting the americans". Theres no way they would ever shoot one of them down, not with all the money they are getting from us.

[ohio2007]

4. Missile strike kills suspected UK mastermind of airline bomb plot ( ISI "concerned" )

The suspected British mastermind behind the 2006 suspected al Qaeda plot to blow up 10 trans-Atlantic passenger jets with liquid explosives has been killed in a US missile strike, according to reports in Pakistan. Had it succeeded, the plot could have killed on the scale of the September 11 attacks, and it resulted in tighter controls on hand luggage carried by passengers worldwide.

Rashid Rauf, originally from Birmingham, is believed to have been killed along with at least four other militants with links to al Qaeda by an unmanned US drone plane before dawn in the North Waziristan region of Pakistan.

Intelligence officers in northwest Pakistan, speaking on condition of anonymity, said Rauf had been killed, though there was no official confirmation.



They named another of the dead as Egyptian Abu Zubair al-Masri. Arab casualties in the region are usually taken as a sign of an al Qaeda presence.

The missile strike said to have killed him targeted a house near the North Waziristan town of Mir Ali, and came just two days after Pakistan lodged a protest with the US ambassador over missile attacks on its territory.Villages around Mir Ali have been targeted before and have been a hive of Taliban and al Qaeda activity in the past.

“According to our information two missiles were fired by the drone on a house,” an intelligence officer in the region said.

snip

Rauf had been arrested in Pakistan in 2006 following an apparent tip-off from British anti-terrorism officers, days before a series of raids in the UK which were followed by the tightening of hand baggage restrictions on flights.

snip


http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/uk/crime/article5211809.ece

With the price of oil falling through the floor, it's going to be harder to keep off duty ISI on the AQ payroll protecting their bases and safe houses.

jmo, the Pak govt is only paying lip service but behind closed doors as AQ's 'fingerprint' increases ,
http://www.dawn.com/2008/11/22/top1.htm
they know the swamp in their backyard is ready to break over the levees