Al-Hayat

For the first time, the Pakistani army has publicly acknowledged that U.S. drones targeting militants on Pakistani soil.

In a press conference for Pakistani journalists this week, said a military commander, U.S. drone strikes have killed most of the militants and al Qaeda fighters, not civilians.

“Most of the targets are hardcore militants,” said Maj. Gen. Mehmood Ghayur. “The number of innocent people killed is relatively small.”

Before the declaration of Mehmood Pakistani authorities have acknowledged that U.S. strikes unmanned aircraft in private, while publicly condemning and calling to stop.

Since 2007, 164 drone attacks have killed 964 militants, Mehmood told reporters at the stronghold of the militants in North Waziristan.

Of these 171 fighters from al-Qaeda fatal, primarily in Central Asia and Arab countries, “he said. Mehmood has no statistics on civilian casualties and did not say how the information collected on military drone strikes, which were significantly lower than would be on CNN and many other independent estimates.

Based on an account by CNN, there were 205 strikes in 2008 was U.S. drones. A recent report by the New America Foundation, a U.S. tank believe base, said most of the militants killed by airstrikes unmanned fighters were low.

human rights outside of Pakistan has condemned the drone strikes, saying they have killed hundreds of civilians.

Despite the efforts of the Pakistani military for a high toll in militant attack drones, Mehmood said the attacks had a negative impact on Pakistan’s security.

“Certainly, they have social and political organizations and our law enforcement must deal with fallout,” said Mehmood.

U.S. officials rarely acknowledge publicly the CIA’s secret program of drones in Pakistan. Private, U.S. officials say the strikes are legal and effective covert tactics in the fight against extremists.