US drones enter Afghanistan through Pakistan airspace: Curtis

KABUL (Pajhwok): Lisa Curtis, former South and Central Asia Director of the US National Security Council, says American drones enter Afghanistan through Pakistan’s airspace.

She told the Voice of America Pashtu yesterday that Pakistan’s help in killing Al Qaeda leader Ayman al-Zawahiri was important.

But Pakistan had denied playing any role in the killing of the Al-Qaeda supreme leader.

After Zawahiri’s death in a US drone attack in Kabul in July, concerns were raised about the entry of American drones into Afghanistan.

Lisa Curtis said American drones flied through Pakistan’s airspace to Afghanistan ‘to monitor terrorism’.

“This is something that is important for America, especially the help of Pakistan in the recent operations to eliminate Al-Zawahiri was important, and Pakistan allows America in such matters.”

The caretaker government of Afghanistan called the killing of al-Zawahiri a claim by the United States and said the matter was being investigated.

Acting Defense Minister Maulvi Muhammad Yaqub Mujahid also said last month that American drones entered Afghan airspace from Pakistan’s territory and asked Pakistan not to use its airspace against Afghanistan.

Pakistan termed Yaqub’s accusations “conjectural allegations”. In a statement, the Foreign Office spokesperson had said that the statement was “highly regrettable” and defied the “norms of responsible diplomatic conduct”.

Hezb-i-Islami Afghanistan leader Gulbuddin Hekmatyar had also expressed two possibilities about the arrival of American planes in Afghanistan’s airspace some time ago.

He had said the American drones either entered Afghanistan’s airspace from Doha through Pakistan or from Tajikistan.

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