Pakistan confirms harboring US drones

Pakistan has confirmed that US forces have used several airbases inside the country in order to launch attacks on Afghanistan.

Pakistani Defense Minister Chaudhry Ahmad Mukhtar told the Senate that the American forces had left all the airbases in Jacobabad, Pasni and Dalbandin "a long time ago."

He claimed that no airbase is being used by foreign forces at the current time.

"No US planes were now flying from Shamsi, Jacobabad and Pasni," the minister said.

The defense minister's remarks come amid reports that US troops are still using the Shamsi airbase in Balochistan.

Last year some reports suggested that the American forces have been secretly using airbases inside Pakistan to launch strikes on targets even on the Pakistani side of the border with Afghanistan.

The Central Intelligence Agency was covertly using the Shamsi airfield in Pakistan's restive southwestern province of Balochistan, The Times Online reported.

Some Pakistani experts have urged the government to retrieve the airbase as they say the US wants to continue using it for a long time.

In December 2001, Pakistan allowed a US request for a long-term presence at Jacobabad in the centre of the country.

Source: PressTV.
Link: http://www.presstv.ir/detail.aspx?id=116259§ionid=351020401.