Unmanned Predator Drone Hits Al Qaeda-linked Haqqani Family Safe House Inside Pakistan, 13 Killed

Now THIS is the start of a good weekend! An American predator drone (UAV) has hit a Taliban leader's home in North Waziristan inside of Pakistan...that leader being connected to the Haqqani family network which is aligned with al Qaeda and the result is 13 dead bad guys which includes the inevitable term of "foreigners" (usually meaning Arabs or Uzbecks). This comes just three days after another strike inside of Pakistan killed about the same number. The details of the report comes from The Long War Journal and here's some excerpts:

The US has attacked a safe house in the lawless, Taliban-controlled tribal agency of North Waziristan.
An unmanned Predator aircraft fired at least one Hellfire missile at a compound in the town of Data Khel just outside of Miramshah. The strike hit the home of a Taliban leader named Tariq Khan.
Thirteen people were reported killed, including "foreigners," according to Geo News. The term foreigner is often used to describe Arab and other non-Pakistani al Qaeda members sheltering in Pakistan's northwest. No senior Taliban or al Qaeda leaders have been reported killed in the attack.
The al Qaeda-linked Haqqani family and Taliban warlord Hafiz Gul Bahadar operate in North Waziristan. The Haqqani Network has a strong presence in the Miramshah region of North Waziristan.
Today's attack is the thirteenth inside Pakistan this year and follows a strike against a Taliban safe house and training camp in the Arakzai tribal agency just three days ago. A senior al Qaeda operative and three other Arab fighters are reported to have been among the 12 killed in the first attack in Arakzai since the US began launching airstrikes in northwestern Pakistan since 2004.

Now, I would say that we could literally conduct six of these attacks every single day for probably six months and then we'd start making a dent in the numbers of Taliban and al Qaeda-linked fighters inside of Pakistan but what these attacks do is disrupt things and I believe that is the goal. The point is that more and more of the leaders view it as too risky to all sit down together for a big powwow and at the same time, each time some of these mid level and upper level commanders get wasted, it takes a little bit of information and expertise out of the forces of evil.

The only thing that pisses me off is that we don't get any videos of these hits! haha

US strikes Haqqani Network in North Waziristan

The US has been heavily targeting the Haqqani Network in Pakistan and across the border in Afghanistan since early 2008. More than half of the US strikes have hit targets in North Waziristan.
"We want the Haqqanis to know we will hit them anywhere," a senior US military intelligence official told The Long War Journal after the Sept. 8 strike on the Haqqani madrassa.
The Manba Ulom madrassa was established by Jalaluddin Haqqani, the family patriarch who has close ties with Osama bin Laden. The madrassa was used in the 1980s to train mujahideen to fight the Soviet Union in Afghanistan. The Haqqani family used the Manba Ulom madrassa as a training center and meeting place for senior al Qaeda leaders after the US invasion of Afghanistan in 2001.
The Pakistani government closed the madrassa down in 2002, but it was reopened in 2004. Since then, Taliban fighters and members of al Qaeda's network are known to shelter in the madrassa compound.
The madrassa serves as the headquarters for the Haqqani Network, while the forward operating command center in Afghanistan is located in the village of Zambar in the northern Sabari district in Khost province, Afghanistan. The network is active in the Afghan provinces of Khost, Paktia, Paktika, Ghazni, Logar, Wardak, and Kabul, and provides support to Taliban networks in Kunar, Nangarhar, Helmand, and Kandahar provinces
The Haqqanis have extensive links with al Qaeda and Pakistan’s military intelligence agency, the Inter-Service Intelligence, or ISI. This relationship has allowed the Haqqani network to survive and thrive in North Waziristan. The Haqqanis control large swaths of North Waziristan, and run a parallel administration with courts, recruiting centers, tax offices, and security forces.
Siraj Haqqani, a son of Jalaluddin, has risen in prominence over the past two years. He is believed to be the mastermind of the most deadly attacks inside Afghanistan as well as the senior military commander in eastern Afghanistan. The US military has described Siraj as the primary threat to security in eastern Afghanistan. On March 25, the US Department of State put a $5 million bounty out for information leading to the capture or conviction of Siraj.
Siraj is believed to be dangerous not only for his connections with the Afghan Taliban, but with al Qaeda's central leadership. His connections extend all the way to Osama bin Laden. Siraj actively recruits foreigners into the network and trains them to conduct suicide attacks in Afghanistan.