New US weapon behind Waziristan killings

The blasts in a madrassa that killed over 30 people in Datakhel area of North Waziristan was caused by a new weapon the US is using in that area to target Taliban and al-Qaeda suspects, US media reports have said.

Washington/Lahore, June 21 : The blasts in a madrassa that killed over 30 people in Datakhel area of North Waziristan was caused by a new weapon the US is using in that area to target Taliban and al-Qaeda suspects, US media reports have said.

The new weapon system is known as High Mobility Artillery Rockets or Himars, a counterpart of Predator drones.

The Himars are particularly useful when bad weather prevents high-altitude strikes. They are generally mounted on trucks, but can be fired from any location.

Equipped with a six-pack rocket battery, they can be configured to shoot a wide array of rockets and missiles, from cluster bombs to a single missile system with a range of up to 300 kilometres.

According to a report in the Dawn, the time required by the Himars launcher to aim at a target is 16 seconds.

A crew of three operates the launcher, and it is possible for the crew to select pre-programmed targets stored in a fire control computer to increase flexibility, the paper said.

According to the paper, the system is the new favourite of the US forces in the war against terrorism, especially when significant firepower is desired.

The paper quoted US media reports as saying that, Himars have provided US forces deployed in Afghanistan the ability to fire deep into Pakistan from a considerable distance.

This prevents the tribals of the area from tracing the source of the fire and also helps save the Pakistan Government from embarrassment whenever a rocket comes from the Afghanistan side.

The paper further said that with GPS-aided precision, the missiles can be provided with a greater ability to hit the target.

ANI