Pervez Musharraf admits deal with US on drone strikes

Musharraf said there was no blanket agreement with the US on the controversial drone campaign.

Former President Pervez Musharraf has acknowledged his regime secretly cleared US drone strikes,becoming the first serving or retired Pakistani official to publicly admit that the country had a deal on attacks by the CIA-operated spy planes.

Musharraf said there was no blanket agreement with the US on the controversial drone campaign and that his regime had cleared missile strikes 8220;only on very few occasions where the target was absolutely isolated and the drone strike had no chance of collateral damage8221;.

The drone strikes were discussed 8220;at the military and intelligence level8221; and cleared only if 8220;there was no time for our own special operations task force and military to act8221;,he said.

8220;That was8230;maybe two or three times only,8221; he told CNN in an interview. Sometimes,he said,8221;you couldn8217;t delay action8221;. He added: 8220;These ups and downs kept going8230;It was a very fluid situation,a vicious enemy8230;mountains,inaccessible areas8221;.

Musharraf said that one of those killed by US drones was Nek Mohammed,a tribal warlord accused of harbouring al-Qaeda militants in the tribal belt.

At the time,in June 2004,Pakistan intelligence said Mohammed died after Pakistani forces launched a missile at a house where he was staying.

Pakistani leaders have for long denied the country8217;s involvement in clearing drone strikes. The Foreign Office described the strikes as counter-productive for the war against terrorism and a violation of Pakistan8217;s sovereignty

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Hundreds of people have been killed in drone strikes since 2004,including top Taliban and al-Qaeda operatives. However,some political parties and rights groups say dozens of civilians have died in the attacks.

Musharraf8217;s admission suggests he and others did play some role even if they did not oversee the programme or approve every attack,CNN reported. His admission that Pakistani leaders agreed to even a limited number of strikes runs counter to Islamabad8217;s frequent denunciation of the drone campaign.

In a 2008 diplomatic cable made public by Wikileaks,then US Ambassador Anne Patterson mentioned a discussion about drones during a meeting with then Interior Minister Rehman Malik and then premier Yousuf Raza Gilani.

8220;Malik suggested we hold off alleged Predator attacks until after the Bajaur operation,8221; Patterson wrote. 8220;The PM brushed aside Rehman8217;s remarks and said,8217;I

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don8217;t care if they do it as long as they get the right people. We8217;ll protest in the National Assembly and then ignore it8217;.