WASHINGTON, Dec 28: So far this year, the United States has launched 46 strikes in Pakistan and 22 per cent of those at targets in the valley of Shawal, the US media reported on Friday.

Also on Friday, a Washington think-tank, New America Foundation, reported that US drone strikes decreased in Pakistan but intensified in Yemen where 40 strikes were launched this year.

In 2011, the US launched 72 strikes in Pakistan and only 10 in Yemen. In 2010, the United States launched a record 122 strikes in Pakistan’s tribal areas.

These strikes, with Reaper or Predator drones, killed between 189 and 308 militants and at least seven civilians, the think-tank said.

The Long War Journal, a US news outlet which focuses on the war against terrorists, reported that 10 of 46 strikes launched in 2012 targeted Al-Qaeda and Taliban hideouts in North Waziristan’s Shawal Valley.

The strikes were particularly heavy in summer and continued in winter too. The latest, on Friday, killed a number of suspected militants in Shawal.

On Aug 24, drones hit three compounds in the same area, killing 18 militants.

Quoting official US sources, the Long Wall Journal reported that Shawal is the main hideout for three major terrorist groups, Al-Qaeda, the Tehrik-i-Taliban Pakistan and the Hafiz Gul Bahadur faction of the Taliban.

US sources say that Gul Bahadur is the main Taliban leader in North Waziristan and the area under his control is also used to launch attacks across the border in Afghanistan.

Shawal also shelters Central Asian terror groups and on July 1, a US drone strike killed several members of the Turkistan Islamic Party. The group is affiliated with Al -Qaeda and has carried out attacks in Pakistan, China, and Central Asia.

In 2009, after the Pakistani military launched an offensive in the Mehsud areas of South Waziristan, Gul Bahadar sheltered the families of TTP leaders Hakeemullah Mehsud and Waliur Rehman Mehsud.

US officials say that Gul Bahadar, Hakeemullah, South Waziristan Taliban commander Mullah Nazir, and Sirajuddin Haqqani of the Haqqani Network are all members of the Shura-e-Murakeba, an alliance formed in late 2011.

In June, Gul Bahadur banned polio vaccination in North Waziristan.

Friday’s strike was the 25th in Pakistan since June 4, when the US killed Abu Yahya al Libi, a key Al-Qaeda leader.

Uzbek, Tajik, and Turkmen fighters from the Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan were reportedly among the 14 terrorists killed along with Abu Yahya, who was second to Al-Qaeda leader Ayman al Zawahiri. US officials believe that once Zawahiri is also killed, the terror group would collapse.

Of the 46 US drone strikes in Pakistan this year, 27 have been launched since early June; 22 in North Waziristan, four in South Waziristan, and one in Orakzai.

The United States scaled back its drone strikes in Pakistan between March and May, when relations between the two countries strained.

Between March 30 and May 22, the US conducted only three drone strikes in Fata as Washington negotiated the reopening of Nato's supply lines, which were closed from the end of November 2011 until July 3.

The Long War Journal reported that in addition to Abu Yahya, four other high-value targets had been confirmed killed in the strikes in Pakistan this year. A Jan 11 strike in Miramshah killed Aslam Awan, a deputy to the leader of Al Qaeda's external operations network.

On Feb 8, the US killed Badr Mansoor, a senior Taliban and Al Qaeda leader, in a strike in Miramshah's bazaar.

On Dec 6, US drones killed Khalid bin Abdul Rahman al Husainan, a top Qaeda religious leader who is also known as Abu Zeid al Kuwaiti.

And earlier this year, a US drone strike killed Abu Usman Adil, the emir of the Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan.

Adil succeeded Tahir Yuldashev, the co-founder of the IMU, who had been killed in a drone strike in September 2009.

Four other senior jihadist leaders, including Qaeda commanders Abu Kasha al Iraqi and Fateh al Turki, are reported to have been killed in drone strikes in North Waziristan since the beginning of August, although their deaths have not been confirmed.

Badruddin Haqqani, a top leader in the Qaeda-linked Haqqani Network, is thought to have been killed in a drone strike in North Waziristan.

And Emeti Yakuf, also known as Abdul Shakoor Turkistani, may have been killed in the Aug 24 drone strike in Shawal.

A recent report commissioned by legal lobby group Reprieve estimated that 474 to 881 civilians were among 2,562 to 3,325 people killed by drones in Pakistan between June 2004 and September 2012.

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