U.S. Drone Strike Hits Pakistan’s FATA Region After Nearly Five Months

On Wednesday, July
4 a U.S. drone strike operation took place in the Tor Tangai area of North Waziristan in the Federally
Administered Tribal Areas (FATA)
region of Pakistan near the Afghanistan border, killing
militant commander Qari Abdullah Dawar and an unidentified associate.  Xinhua reported that the two were in
transit to a mountain hideout when the operation occurred. 

Dawar served as acting commander of the Hafiz Gul
Bahadur Group after its leader Gul Bahadur was killed in a drone strike in
2014.  The Gul Bahadur Group is closely associated with the Haqqani
Network and is a faction of Tehrik-i-Taliban (TTP or Pakistani Taliban). 

The Federally Administered Tribal Areas region of Pakistan is a haven for
militant and terrorist group members.  Pakistani officials have
discussed their limited ability to draw the FATA region into mainstream
Pakistan because of British colonial era laws
carried over after independence, and partition from India.  This
continued practice has allowed the FATA region to remain largely autonomous,
and separately governed from the rest of the country.  Earlier this year, Pakistani
President Mamnoon Hussain signed
new rules for the territory, the FATA Interim Governance Regulation.  These new interim rules will remain in effect
until the FATA region merges
with Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa within the next two years, bringing Pakistani law into
the tribal areas.  Pakistani military officials claim
that most militant and terrorist safe havens in the area have been eradicated.

The
United States undertook it first known drone strike in the region in
2004.  Drone strikes began under the Bush administration, and were
relatively limited until 2008.  Strikes peaked under the Obama
administration in 2010, and then declined throughout much of Obama’s final
years in office. 

The
first drone strike under the Trump administration took place in early 2017,
after more than nine months without reported strikes.  Thus far, nine drone
operations have taken place under the Trump administration.  Since the
last strike in February 2018, this is the longest the Trump administration has
gone without a drone strike in Pakistan.  All except one have taken place
within the FATA region.