Six Taliban Dead, Five Taliban Wish They Were After U.S. Drones Hit North Waziristan

Starting the week off right people! A U.S. predator drone strike today hit Pakistan's North Waziristan (boy, that's a shocker, huh?) killing six Taliban and wounding five.

From the report at The Long War Journal:

The US attacked al Qaeda and Taliban targets in the Datta Khel area, a known terrorist command and control hub in Pakistan's Taliban-controlled tribal agency of North Waziristan.

Unmanned Predators or the heavily armed Reapers fired six missiles at a compound and a vehicle in the Sunzalai village in the Datta Khel area of North Waziristan, Dawn reported. Six "militants" were reported killed and five more were wounded, while four Predators continued to circle over the scene of the attack, Pakistani intelligence officials stated.

The target of the strike is not known, and no senior Taliban or al Qaeda leaders were reported killed.

The Datta Khel area is administered by Hafiz Gul Bahadar, the Taliban commander for North Waziristan. Bahadar provides shelter to top al Qaeda leaders as well as terrorists from numerous Pakistani and Central Asian terror groups.

I think it is actually advantageous that some wounded were left in this attack and in other attacks...it ensures that more and more Taliban and al Qaeda get to hear all of the details of the hellfire strikes. I think it's powerful to have a group of 12 Taliban gather around a wounded comrade only to hear him say "I swear to Allah, we never heard a thing! It was business as usual one minute and the next I see Abdullah's arm flying by my head and my own feet are on fire!"

Oh yeah, it's raining hellfires in North Waziristan...how's that recruiting going in the area, boys?

US Predators strike in Datta Khel, kiling 6 'militants'


The US attacked al Qaeda and Taliban targets in the Datta Khel area, a known terrorist command and control hub in Pakistan's Taliban-controlled tribal agency of North Waziristan.

Unmanned Predators or the heavily armed Reapers fired six missiles at a compound and a vehicle in the Sunzalai village in the Datta Khel area of North Waziristan, Dawn reported. Six "militants" were reported killed and five more were wounded, while four Predators continued to circle over the scene of the attack, Pakistani intelligence officials stated.

The target of the strike is not known, and no senior Taliban or al Qaeda leaders were reported killed.

The Datta Khel area is administered by Hafiz Gul Bahadar, the Taliban commander for North Waziristan. Bahadar provides shelter to top al Qaeda leaders as well as terrorists from numerous Pakistani and Central Asian terror groups.

Datta Khel is an al Qaeda stronghold

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.]

The US has pounded the Datta Khel area of North Waziristan this year; 24 of this year's 88 strikes, or 27 percent, have hit targets in Datta Khel.

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 US has been pounding targets in the Datta Khel, Miramshah, and Mir Ali areas of North Waziristan in an effort to kill members involved in the European plot. Al Qaeda and allied terror groups such as the Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan, the Islamic Jihad Group, the Eastern Turkistan Islamic Party, Jaish-e-Mohammed, Lashkar-e-Jhangvi, and a number of Pakistani and Central and South Asian terror groups host or share camps in the region.

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 the Taliban 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, and with 13 strikes already in October, the US appears to be prepared to match last month's pace. The previous 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 88 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 88 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.]