WASHINGTON - In a bid to calm down the hullabaloo in Islamabad over the drone attacks, the US discreetly allowed Pakistan to choose some of its own targets using the unmanned aircraft last March, a US magazine has claimed.

A report published in the New Yorker claimed that the change in US policy led to the killing of Pakistani Taliban leader Baitullah Mehsud in August.

The author of the piece also claimed to have watched a live video feed relaying close-up footage of Baitullah Mehsud along with officials at the Central Intelligence Agency, Virginia.

“He could be seen reclining on the rooftop of his father-in-law’s house, in Zanghara, a hamlet in South Waziristan. It was a hot summer night, and he was joined outside by his wife and his uncle, a medic; at one point, the remarkably crisp images showed that Mehsud, who suffered from diabetes and a kidney ailment, was receiving an intravenous drip,” The Dawn quoted Myers, as saying.

“The image remained just as stable when the CIA remotely launched two Hellfire missiles from the Predator. Authorities watched the fiery blast in real time. After the dust cloud dissipated, all that remained of Mehsud was a detached torso. Eleven others died: his wife, his father-in-law, his mother-in-law, a lieutenant, and seven bodyguards,” she added.

Mayer noted that the use of unmanned aircraft to kill militants had both pros and cons.

While the CIA has reportedly killed more than half of the 20 most wanted Al Qaeda suspects, they’ve also inflamed anti-American entiment in Pakistan for killing hundreds of civilians, she said. (ANI)