From The Long War Journal:
US kills 6 in pair of Predator strikes in North Waziristan
By Bill RoggioOctober 27, 2010
Unmanned US strike aircraft carried out two attacks today in Pakistan's Taliban-controlled tribal agency of North Waziristan. The strikes are the first in nine days.
The Predators or the heavily armed Reapers struck a compound in the village of Spin Wam in the Mir Ali area in the first attack, killing two people, according to the Associated Press. Foreign al Qaeda fighters were thought to be sheltering in the compound.
"The target was the house of a militant, Nasimullah Khan, where some foreigners had been staying as his guests," a Pakistani intelligence official told AFP.
The second strike, which took place 12 hours later, hit a vehicle in the village of Degan in the Datta Khel area of North Waziristan. Two Arab al Qaeda members and two "Westerners" were reported killed, the Associated Press reported.
The targets of the strikes are not known, and no senior Taliban or al Qaeda leaders were reported killed.
Today's strike takes place as the US is seeking to disrupt a plot by al Qaeda modeled after the Mumbai terror assault. Al Qaeda operatives have been planning to carry out a terror assault targeting several major European cities. The plot is said to have been ordered by Osama bin Laden.
The Mir Ali area is in the sphere of influence of Abu Kasha al Iraqi, an al Qaeda leader who serves as a key link to the Taliban and supports al Qaeda's external operations network. Mir Ali is a known hub for al Qaeda's military and external operations councils. Taliban leader Hafiz Gul Bahadar and the Haqqani Network also operate in the Mir Ali area.
Qari Hussain Mehsud, a top leader of the Pakistani Taliban and a master trainer of suicide bombers, is reported to have been killed in a strike in Mir Ali on Oct. 4, but the Taliban have denied the reports.
The Datta Khel area is administered by Hafiz Gul Bahadar, who provides shelter to top al Qaeda leaders as well as terrorists from numerous Pakistani and Central Asian terror groups.
Datta Khel serves as a command and control center for al Qaeda's top leaders. Several of al Qaeda's top commanders, including Mustafa Abu Yazid, the chief financial official and commander in Afghanistan, and Abdullah Said al Libi, the commander of al Qaeda's military, have been killed in Predator strikes in Datta Khel in the last year. [For more information on al Qaeda's presence in Datta Khel, see LWJ report, Latest US Predator strike kills 5 in al Qaeda hub in North Waziristan.]
Despite the known presence of al Qaeda and other foreign groups in North Waziristan, and requests by the US that action be taken against these groups, the Pakistani military has indicated that it has no plans to take on Hafiz Gul Bahadar, the Haqqani Network, and Mullah Nazir. Regardless of their support for al Qaeda and other terror groups, the Haqqanis, Bahadar, and Nazir are considered "good Taliban" by the Pakistani military establishment as they do not carry out attacks inside Pakistan.
The Pakistani government claims it is conducting "surgical" strikes against terror groups in North Waziristan, and said more than 34,000 troops are operating in the tribal agency. But there is no evidence to back up the Pakistani government's claim it is hitting those terror groups in covert raids.
The Predator strikes, by the numbers
The pace of the strikes since the beginning of September is unprecedented since the US began the air campaign in Pakistan in 2004. The 21 strikes in September is a record number. There have been 15 strikes already in October. The previous monthly high was 11 strikes in January 2010, after the Taliban and al Qaeda executed a successful suicide attack at Combat Outpost Chapman that targeted CIA personnel who were active in gathering intelligence for the Predator campaign in Pakistan. In the bombing at COP Chapman, seven CIA officials and a Jordanian intelligence officer were killed.
The US has carried out 90 attacks inside Pakistan this year, which is more than double the number of strikes in Pakistan just two years ago. The US exceeded last year's strike total of 53 with a strike in Kurram in late August. In 2008, the US carried out 36 strikes inside Pakistan. [For up-to-date charts on the US air campaign in Pakistan, see LWJ Special Report, Charting the data for US airstrikes in Pakistan, 2004 - 2010.]
All but nine of this year's 90 strikes have taken place in North Waziristan. Of the nine strikes that have occurred outside of North Waziristan, seven took place in South Waziristan, one occurred in Khyber, and one took place in Kurram.
The US campaign in northwestern Pakistan has targeted top al Qaeda leaders, al Qaeda's external operations network, and Taliban leaders and fighters who threaten both the Afghan and Pakistani states as well as support al Qaeda's external operations. [For a list of al Qaeda and Taliban leaders killed in the US air campaign in Pakistan, see LWJ Special Report, Senior al Qaeda and Taliban leaders killed in US airstrikes in Pakistan, 2004 - 2010.]
Read more: http://www.longwarjournal.org/archives/2010/10/us_kills_four_in_pai.php#ixzz13chxRzKT
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