Meet Aji bin Haden. He is 16 years old, the son of a farmer and lives in the northern Pakistan village of Harban Nala.
He is also the nation’s youngest pilot and they call him the Hero of Harban.
One year ago his life was changed forever when a CIA Drone attack left 14 dead and 32 injured in his tiny home town.
Aji’s uncle Madik Al Wassan was killed in that attack. Al Wassan was listed postmortem as an enemy combatant because he was of military age when he died.
Al Wassan had just returned from the University in Nepal where he had been on his way to earning a degree in engineering.
“We were all very proud of him,” said Aji, holding his brother’s blood stained shirt that he takes with him on his flights. Aji also lost his mother two weeks later from complications resulting from injuries sustained in the blast, but it is still too painful for him to talk about.
Aji tells us through his translator that he “felt they were targeting my father. He used to work with the Americans, bringing weapons to the Taliban in the old war. They must still think he is working for the Taliban, but he is a farmer now, and they kill us without reason.”
It was when Aji and his father were going through his uncle’s possessions that Aji says he was touched by the hand of God.
In his uncle’s history of engineering book were a set of designs that the young man saw as the key to doing something to fight back against the Drones.
The designs were for a World War I era biplane.
“We helped him because he made us believe,” said one elderly man, who was later identified as the village blacksmith.
Aji enlisted the people of his village for the project, the men building the airframe from old aluminum and local wood, women sewed the fabrics for the wings and the local mechanic helped convert a Nissan engine from a broken down truck to power the makeshift rig.
Pulleys from children’s toys and old twined electrical wiring were fastened to the control stick (a parking brake lever salvaged from a coalition Hummv.)
Two AK-47’s were bolted to the top of the fuselage and timed to the engine (so they wouldn’t shoot the propeller off) with a bicycle chain. The landing gear once served on a tricycle.
The final piece, a wooden propeller, was carved by his father from his mother’s funeral tree.
It took nearly ten months to finish construction and get it running, and when Aji climbed in the for the first time only a couple of months ago, the village prayed for his safe take off and landing.
“We were afraid, of course that he would kill himself, but we had to let him go once it was built,” said his father, who declined to release his name and demanded that we not show images of the completed biplane, to prevent the CIA from targeting it.
By day, when he has the fuel, he takes to the skies and hunts the deadly drones.
“I know they could kill me, but I also know I can shoot one down if it attacks my village,” says Aji.
Perhaps reluctant to shoot down a 16 year old child, coalition and UN forces have not used drones near the village since Aji started his sky patrol.
"Theoretically he could shoot down one of the slow moving drones, but it's only ever been done with a soviet MiG, and that was over Iraq, I don't think he'd stand much of a chance against a missile, however" said AP military advisior Thom Hartman.
Military and governmental officials refused to comment.
But Aji knows the truth, and so do the people of his village.
"We feel safe with him up there," said the mother of Aji's betrothed.
Wearing a pair of dusty goggles and a scarf his mother made for him, Aji waves to us as he takes off. His hard eyes are ready to scan the horizon for his enemy.
For now, at least, he is keeping his village safe, a profile in courage, bringing hope where once there was only terror.
{Copyright Doug Socks 2012}
Images courtesy of AP
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Comments
18 million dollar drone vs kid in biplane? The kid would actually have a shot.
BTW Thanks for visiting scanner!
rated
r./
Fascinating idea!
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