Updated on
Summary The US started preparations to vacate Pakistani Shamsi Airbase after tension between two countries.
According a UK news network, Washington is treading lightly not to aggravate an already fragile relationship that was bruised further by a NATO attack on a Pakistani military outpost last weekend that killed 24 Pakistani soldiers near the Afghanistan border.Pakistan demanded that the United States leave the Shamsi Air Base within 15 days and blocked ground supply routes through Pakistan to US forces in Afghanistan.Three sources, who declined to be identified because of the issue’s sensitivity, said US planning is under way to leave the base, a remote facility in Balochistan that has been a point of contention.The cross-border incident escalated tensions between the two countries and the US military is conducting an investigation to find out exactly what happened on the ground.The moves by the Pakistanis to block ground supply routes and the air base were not expected to significantly hinder US operations.One US government source said the United States has spent months preparing for a possible eviction from the Pakistan base by building up other drone launching and staging capability.Earlier this year, after the US raid that killed al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden, some Pakistani officials demanded that Washington vacate the Shamsi facility.At the time, however, US officials said that American personnel would remain at the base and would continue to conduct drone flights in pursuit of militants.But in one concession, the United States stopped conducting lethal drone operations from that base and limited operations to surveillance flights.US officials believe that this time Pakistan appears much more resolute about carrying out the eviction threat.Vacating the air base was seen more as an inconvenience rather than a critical blow to drone operations which the United States also conducts from Afghanistan and possibly elsewhere.
