'Toxic chemicals in US drone strikes'

Fri Jun 10, 2011 1:3AM

Pakistani physicians and experts say the US uses chemical munitions in its non-UN-sanctioned drone strikes on Pakistan's tribal regions bordering Afghanistan.

Experts revealed that those Pakistani civilians who have come under the unauthorized drone airstrike in Pakistan's troubled northwest have been afflicted with complicated skin, eye and respiratory diseases due to the deadly chemical materials used in the missiles, the Press TV correspondent in Peshawar reported on Thursday. 

According to journalists and experts from Waziristan that is a mountainous region of northwest Pakistan which has often been the focal point of US drone attacks, they have received numerous reports from several people and local doctors pointing at the hazardous effects of the ongoing drone attacks on the entire population. 

"Since these drone strikes have been carried out, we have witnessed several peculiar disease cases, and our press club have been frequently visited by those complainants, who have developed skin and bronchial diseases in the aftermath of drone airstrikes. I'd like to add further that the agriculture and the livestock are also showing pitiable condition," journalist Safdar Dawar told Press TV. 

An expert from Waziristan says his daughter died of blood cancer soon after she had developed a skin disease, which was no more than the toxic effect of chemical substances used in the non-UN-sanctioned drone strikes. 

"I myself lost my daughter, who was just 28 months old, she developed a skin disease and later on she was diagnosed, within a month, with blood cancer. At that time people were talking about the chemical bombings being carried out. The same is the case now that wherever the drone attacks are carried out, people in that area are complaining about skin diseases, lung infections, throat infections and various kinds of other diseases," Pakistani political expert Safiullah Gul said. 

The report strikes at the heart of growing tension between the United States and Pakistan over the US aerial attacks on Pakistani soil. 

Washington claims the airstrikes target militants. However, the attacks have killed hundreds of civilians in Pakistan since 2008, local reports say.