US used Pakistani airspace for drone that killed al-Qaeda chief Ayman al-Zawahri: analysts
- Islamabad gave Washington permission and could have provided intelligence confirming whereabouts of the al-Qaeda leader, observers say
- Operation was ‘probably conducted’ under agreement that kept Pakistani airspace open for US military flights to and from Afghanistan
Islamabad certainly gave Washington permission, they said, and could well have provided human intelligence confirming Zawahri’s whereabouts.
“The drone definitely entered Pakistani airspace over Balochistan and entered Afghanistan,” said Abdul Basit, a research fellow at the S. Rajaratnam School of International Studies in Singapore.
He said the operation was probably conducted according to the terms of a 2003 agreement under which Pakistan provided an air corridor for US military flights to and from Afghanistan while it occupied the country.
“The 2003 agreement expired” when US forces left Afghanistan in August last year, “but it was kept intact to keep the airspace open for the US,” Basit said.
Military operations analyst Jonathan Schroden agreed that the drone traversed Pakistani airspace.
He said the MQ-9 Reaper which fired the missiles at the terrorist kingpin probably took off from a US airbase in a Gulf Arab country, flew across the Arabian Sea, and entered Pakistani airspace.