PESHAWAR, Pakistan, Dec. 30 (UPI) -- A militant group tied to al-Qaida is killing accused of pinpointing targets villagers in northwest Pakistan for CIA drones, authorities say.
Militant groups operating along the northwest Pakistani border with Afghanistan don't have the capability to bring down the drones. Instead, the Los Angeles Times reports, an umbrella organization calling itself the Khorasan Mujahedin is tracking down people suspected of giving Western intelligence officers targeting information.
"In the sky there are drones and on the ground there's the Khorasan Mujahedin," a relative of one of the militant group's victims was quoted as saying.
Pakistani authorities say most of the militant group's victims are tortured into making confessions and most of them are killed.
A former Pakistani intelligence officer, who spoke with the Times on condition of anonymity, said that despite the militant threat, villagers are lured by the financial rewards.
"They want the Taliban out because their whole tribal system has been destroyed," the former officer said. "More than 90 percent don't want the Taliban to be ruling them."
The Long War Journal, an online forum monitoring conflict in Central Asia, estimates at least 64 drone missile strikes hit targets in Pakistan this year, about half the total compared with 2010. Some 18 top al-Qaida figures were killed in the strikes.
