Pakistani protesters shout anti-U.S. slogans during a demonstration in Multan Friday following the drone strike.
Pakistani protesters shout anti-U.S. slogans during a demonstration in Multan Friday following the drone strike.
STORY HIGHLIGHTS
- NEW: U.S. military personnel depart Pakistan base, Pakistan official says
- NEW: The location is a hub of drone activity, another official said
- NEW: The news comes amid public furor over civilians killed in drone strikes
Islamabad, Pakistan (CNN) -- A senior Pakistani intelligence official told CNN Friday that U.S. military personnel have left a southern base said to be a key hub for American drone operations in the country's northwestern tribal areas.
It is the Shamsi Airbase in Pakistan's Balochistan Province, from which drones are said to take off and where they are refueled for operations against Islamic militants.
The development comes amid a public furor over American drone attacks, which have killed civilians in the past.
A suspected U.S. drone strike in the Pakistani tribal region killed 25 people on Friday and on March 17 attack, 44 people -- mostly civilians, were killed in another strike.
Another senior Pakistani intelligence official, who did not want to be identified discussing a sensitive issue, confirmed that the Americans had been using the base as a center of operations for launching drone strikes. He was not able to confirm the Americans had left.
While the first official was able to confirm that American personnel were no longer operating out of the base, he could not say whether they had left voluntarily or at the request of the Pakistani government.
The operation of the base -- not publicly acknowledged by the American government -- has always been presumed to have occurred with tacit Pakistani military consent.
It was not clear from the Pakistani officials when the presence there began or when it ended.
A U.S. military official who did not want to be identified told CNN: "There are no U.S. forces at Shamsi Air Base in Balochistan." He did not respond at the time or writing to queries as to whether U.S. personnel had been based there in the past.
The departure of American personnel -- if confirmed -- would be significant because the development has emerged at a time of increased strain between Islamabad and Washington, sparked by the continuing drone attacks and by the Raymond Davis affair, in which a CIA contractor shot dead two Pakistani men in a Lahore neighborhood.
It has always been unclear how many drone bases the United States operates in or near Pakistan. But the Friday attack in North Waziristan that killed 25 people killed would indicate the U.S. maintains drone capability to strike tribal areas.
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