Committed Pakistani jihadists with ties to Afghan militants have replaced the slain top al Qaeda leaders killed by US drones in the Tribal Areas, which analysts fear could plunge into “deeper chaos” after American troops leave neighbouring Afghanistan in 2014, the New York Times reported on Monday.
“From multi-billion-dollar military aid to stealthy and secretive drone strikes, Pakistan, perhaps even more than Afghanistan, has been the central focus of America’s 12-year war” on terror, the New York Times reported.
The paper said “although many senior leaders of al Qaeda sheltering there have been felled by CIA missiles, they have been largely replaced by committed Pakistani jihadists with ties that span the border with Afghanistan”.
The unruly tribal belt in northwestern Pakistan, a hotbed of militancy, has witnessed about 360 US drone strikes in the past decade, killing several high-ranking al Qaeda commanders who took shelter in the restive region, it said.
