Okay, it's officially the weekend. The U.S. sent two or more predator drones into North Waziristan this morning and they took out a Taliban/al Qaeda compound and recorded probably the highest toll of dead jihadists in the history of UAV strikes in NW Pakistan, killing 15.
Can I get an "Amen" out there?!!
From the article at The Long War Journal:
Okay, I'm going to make a prediction here. This airstrike by our predator drones is going to turn out to be the single most deadly strike against al Qaeda in Pakistan for over two years and also, there will be at least three higher level al Qaeda commanders among on the dead in this strike.
Also, I want to point something out. You all read where I was complaining that the number of UAV strikes has been way down in North Waziristan over the past month...well now, I'm convinced that this was on purpose and that the CIA was simply lulling some al Qaeda into thinking we had pulled back or moved on....in order to encourage a big meeting of al Qaeda and Taliban commanders. And it appears it worked to perfection. Hopefully, my predictions are right and we'll have the names of some big fish splashed across the pages here in a few days.
Can I get an "Amen" out there?!!
From the article at The Long War Journal:
The US struck again today at the Taliban and al Qaeda in Pakistan's Taliban-controlled tribal agency of North Waziristan.
Unmanned Predators or the more deadly Reapers fired missiles at a Taliban safe house in the Mir Ali area, killing 15 terrorists. News outlets gave differing accounts of the name of the village where the attack took place; Geo News said it was Inzarabad , while Associated Press and other agencies said it was Haider Khel.
Several "foreigners," a term used by Pakistani officials to describe Arab or Central Asian al Qaeda fighters, were killed in the strike, the Associated Press reported. The identity of those killed is not yet known, and no senior al Qaeda or Taliban leaders have been reported killed at this time.
The town of Mir Ali is a known stronghold of al Qaeda leader Abu Kasha al Iraqi, an Iraqi national who is also known as Abu Akash. He has close links to the Taliban and the Haqqani Network. The Haqqani Network and Hafiz Gul Bahadar also have influence in the Mir Ali region.
Abu Kasha serves as the key link between al Qaeda's Shura Majlis, or executive council, and the Taliban. His responsibilities have expanded to assisting in facilitating al Qaeda's external operations against the West.
Okay, I'm going to make a prediction here. This airstrike by our predator drones is going to turn out to be the single most deadly strike against al Qaeda in Pakistan for over two years and also, there will be at least three higher level al Qaeda commanders among on the dead in this strike.
Also, I want to point something out. You all read where I was complaining that the number of UAV strikes has been way down in North Waziristan over the past month...well now, I'm convinced that this was on purpose and that the CIA was simply lulling some al Qaeda into thinking we had pulled back or moved on....in order to encourage a big meeting of al Qaeda and Taliban commanders. And it appears it worked to perfection. Hopefully, my predictions are right and we'll have the names of some big fish splashed across the pages here in a few days.
US strike kills 15 in North Waziristan
The US struck again today at the Taliban and al Qaeda in Pakistan's Taliban-controlled tribal agency of North Waziristan.
Unmanned Predators or the more deadly Reapers fired missiles at a Taliban safe house in the Mir Ali area, killing 15 terrorists. News outlets gave differing accounts of the name of the village where the attack took place; Geo News said it was Inzarabad , while Associated Press and other agencies said it was Haider Khel.
Several "foreigners," a term used by Pakistani officials to describe Arab or Central Asian al Qaeda fighters, were killed in the strike, the Associated Press reported. The identity of those killed is not yet known, and no senior al Qaeda or Taliban leaders have been reported killed at this time.
The town of Mir Ali is a known stronghold of al Qaeda leader Abu Kasha al Iraqi, an Iraqi national who is also known as Abu Akash. He has close links to the Taliban and the Haqqani Network. The Haqqani Network and Hafiz Gul Bahadar also have influence in the Mir Ali region.
Abu Kasha serves as the key link between al Qaeda's Shura Majlis, or executive council, and the Taliban. His responsibilities have expanded to assisting in facilitating al Qaeda's external operations against the West.
Background on US strikes in Pakistan
Today's strike is the fourth reported inside Pakistan this month. The three prior strikes took place over the course of 24 hours on June 10-11. The first strike, on June 10, killed two low-level Arab al Qaeda military commanders and a Turkish foreign fighter.
So far this year, the US has carried out 41 strikes in Pakistan; all but two of them have taken place in North Waziristan. The US is well on its way to exceeding last year’s strike total in Pakistan. In 2009, the US carried out 53 strikes in Pakistan; and in 2008, the US carried out 36 strikes in the country. [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."]
Over the past several months, unmanned US Predator and Reaper strike aircraft have been pounding Taliban and al Qaeda hideouts in North Waziristan, and have also struck at targets in South Waziristan and Khyber, in an effort to kill senior terror leaders and disrupt the networks that threaten Pakistan, Afghanistan, and the West. [For more information, see LWJ report, "Senior al Qaeda and Taliban leaders killed in US airstrikes in Pakistan, 2004 - 2010."]
In early April, a top terrorist leader claimed that the US program had been crippled. Siraj Haqqani, the leader of the al Qaeda-linked Haqqani Network, said that the effectiveness of US airstrikes in killing senior Taliban and al Qaeda leaders had “decreased 90 percent" since the Dec. 30, 2009, suicide attack on Combat Outpost Chapman in Khost, Afghanistan, that killed seven CIA employees and a Jordanian intelligence officer. While other factors may be involved in the decreased effectiveness in killing the top-tier leaders, an analysis of the data shows that only three top-tier commanders have been killed since Jan 1, 2010, but seven top-tier leaders were killed between Aug. 1, 2009, and Dec. 31, 2009. [See LWJ report, "Effectiveness of US strikes in Pakistan 'decreased 90 percent' since suicide strike on CIA - Siraj Haqqani," for more information.]
Since the beginning of this year, most US and Pakistani officials believed that Hakeemullah Mehsud, the leader of the Movement of the Taliban in Pakistan, had been killed in a Jan. 14 strike in Pasalkot in North Waziristan. But recently, after four months of silence on the subject, the Taliban released two tapes to prove that Hakeemullah is alive. On the tapes, Hakeemullah said the Taliban will carry out attacks inside the US. The tape was released within 24 hours of an attempted car bombing in New York City by Faisal Shahzad, who was trained by the Taliban in North Waziristan. Hakeemullah's tape was released along with another by his deputy, Qari Hussain Mehsud, who claimed responsibility for the attempted bombing in New York City.
2 comments:
Amen!
More, please.
Amen, Amen, how about going
for 30!
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