US personnel have taken steps to evacuate a remote airfield in Pakistan that had been used for staging classified drone flights directed against militants, US and Pakistani sources said on Monday. Following a Nato airstrike last month during which 24 Pakistani troops were killed accidentally, Pakistan ordered US personnel to vacate the airfield at Shamsi in its Balochistan by December 11.
After receiving this ultimatum - which initially was transmitted to the Obama administration in the form of a press release - the United States began preparing for a possible move of American personnel out of the facility. On Monday, a Pakistani military official, who requested anonymity because he is not authorised to speak to the media, told Reuters: "There is some activity happening at the base because of the deadline given to the Americans. They are moving some equipment and vacating personnel."
Two other sources close to the Pakistani and American governments confirmed that US personnel had begun marshaling personnel and equipment to be moved out of the base in the event the Pakistanis do not relent on their demand. "We're not going to comment specifically on Shamsi but we will comply with the Pakistani requests," Pentagon press secretary George Little said on Monday.
President Barack Obama stepped up the drone campaign after he took office. US officials say it has produced major successes in decimating the central leadership of al Qaeda and putting associated militant groups on the defensive. Pakistani authorities started threatening US personnel with eviction from the Shamsi base in the wake of the raid last May in which US commandos killed Osama bin Laden at his hide-out near Islamabad without notifying Pakistani officials in advance.
In an attempt to mollify the Pakistanis, US authorities began limiting drone flights from the base to nonlethal surveillance flights. But in the wake of the latest deadly Nato air strike, Pakistani authorities renewed and stepped up pressure on the US to vacate the base entirely.
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