American commentators have claimed a Pakistani child disfigured by burns and taken to the US for medical treatment was injured by her country's own military, not a US drone strike.
Little Shakira bears the tragic scars of the war on terror. Her face has been disfigured by burns and her skin is stretched tight. Medical missionaries discovered her two years ago in a bin in the Pakistani region of Swat and, believing her to have been injured by a secret CIA drone strike, took her to the US for surgery which is due to begin next month.
But now hawkish commentators in the US are questioning the story, pointing out there have never been any drone strikes in the Swat valley. Instead, the attacks focus on the border areas closest to Afghanistan.
"What is more likely is that Shakira was horrifically disfigured by her own nation's military, and not by US drones," writes Bill Roggio on The Long War Journal blog.
"Beginning in May 2009, the Pakistani Army launched an offensive in Swat to oust Mullah Fazlullah's branch of the Movement of the Taliban in Pakistan, which ruled the Swat Valley for more than two years prior.
"The Pakistani military used brutal tactics, including indiscriminate air and artillery strikes, against the Taliban and civilians alike." The Swat Valley was once described as Pakistan's Switzerland, a favourite destination for walkers in summer and skiers in winter.
But in 2009 it was overrun by Taliban militants.
Shakira, now four, was found by a doctor on a medical mission with Texas-based House of Charity, who was told the baby had been injured by a drone.
She was initially cared for in a hospital in Lahore but her relatives were never traced before she was taken to the US earlier this month.
Earlier this year the Bureau of Investigative Journalism reported that 385 civilians, nearly half of them children, had been killed the covert US drone programme in Pakistan – a figure dismissed by American officials.
"There is a strain of thought that pins all the blame for Pakistan's ills on the Americans," said a Pakistani journalist who asked to remain anonymous for fear of reprisals. "Again with this baby it seems as if it is easier to assume it was drones than something closer to home."
But in 2009 it was overrun by Taliban militants.
Shakira, now four, was found by a doctor on a medical mission with Texas-based House of Charity, who was told the baby had been injured by a drone.
She was initially cared for in a hospital in Lahore but her relatives were never traced before she was taken to the US earlier this month.
Earlier this year the Bureau of Investigative Journalism reported that 385 civilians, nearly half of them children, had been killed the covert US drone programme in Pakistan – a figure dismissed by American officials.
"There is a strain of thought that pins all the blame for Pakistan's ills on the Americans," said a Pakistani journalist who asked to remain anonymous for fear of reprisals. "Again with this baby it seems as if it is easier to assume it was drones than something closer to home."
