Drone to be carried out in northern areas of Pakistan: US

Shamsi is a nice thing to have, but its not critical to drone operations. They can be carried out from bases in Afghanistan, said Bruce Reidel, a former CIA officer and fellow at the Brookings Institution think tank.The remote Shamsi air base in the countrys southwest is particularly useful for flights hampered by poor weather conditions, he said.A senior US official said the facility was not a make-or-break link for the robotic planes that have proved an effective weapon against Al-Qaeda and Taliban extremists.The real issue isnt Shamsi, its air space, the official, who spoke on condition of anonymity, told AFP.So far there was no sign that Islamabad would bar the US aircraft from flying over Pakistan, and its announcement on Shamsi appeared designed to placate a domestic audience in Pakistan, officials said.You have to have jet fuel delivered to Shamsi, Reidel said. The Pakistani public has the impression of a base that operates extraterritorially but in reality it operates because the Pakistani army helps it to operate.Shortly after Saturdays air attack on the border by NATO forces, Pakistans cabinet ministers and military chiefs demanded the United States clear out of the Shamsi air field within 15 days.Although President Barack Obamas administration was working on a response to a number of demands from Pakistan, there were no plans to pull back on the drone raids, which intelligence officials have credited with weakening the Al-Qaeda network.Pakistan remains a critical counter-terrorism partner, and we do not anticipate significant changes in that relationship, another US official said.It is worth mentioning that angered over a NATO air attack on Saturday that left 24 Pakistani soldiers dead, Islamabad has shut off supply routes to US-led forces in Afghanistan and ordered Americans out of the Shamsi air base used by the CIAs fleet of unmanned aircraft.Even if the Pakistanis make good on their threat over Shamsi, US officials and analysts say the move would be largely symbolic as Washington could fly Predator and Reaper drones out of air fields in neighboring Afghanistan.