The Anatomy of a U.S. Predator Drone Strike in North Waziristan

Yesterday here at Holger Awakens, we posted how U.S. predator drones had killed six Taliban in North Waziristan in Pakistan. That's about all we knew at that time - well, this morning we know more about that strike and the results and I think it's worth noting how effective these strikes truly are and just why I continually put these reports up here.

You see, first off, the death toll from that strike in North Waziristan has gone from six to nine. And most importantly, those predator drones actually killed the local leader of the Taliban. From the new article at DAWN this morning:

A local Taliban commander and two foreign militants were among nine people killed by a suspected US missile strike near the Afghan border, Pakistani officials said Monday.

Sunday’s strike against a house in the North Waziristan tribal area was part of the Obama administration’s campaign to use drones to target militants who regularly stage cross-border attacks against foreign troops in Afghanistan.

Pakistani intelligence officials initially said the attack in Khaddi village killed six people but raised that number to nine on Monday. They spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorised to speak to the media.

The slain insurgent leader was identified only as Mustafa. The officials said he was linked to Sadiq Noor, a key Taliban figure in North Waziristan.

Now, yesterday I pointed out that again in this strike, the U.S. had pinpointed one of the hellfires on a vehicle - I will bet you a week's pay that Mustafa was taken out in the vehicle.

Also, there's another part of today's article that I want to point out:

Three local tribesmen sheltering the militants were identified Sunday as among the dead.

Now that's a signal worth sending to the tribesmen of North Waziristan - if you want to harbor and protect these Taliban and their leaders and the al Qaeda that are mixed in with them, then your days are numbered as well. You don't think that the death of these three conspirators with the Taliban isn't going to get around North Waziristan?

Let's be real here - we could conduct 1000 UAV missions in North Waziristan in the next 30 days and not take out one fifth of the Taliban and al Qaeda there...but what these strikes do is keep the Taliban from meeting, from regrouping in large numbers and from their planning sessions for their attacks back into Afghanistan. The strikes keep the Taliban on the move instead of resting up. And now, hopefully, the strikes will start to reduce the number of tribesmen willing to help these misfits.

Drone strike killed local Taliban commander


MIR ALI: A local Taliban commander and two foreign militants were among nine people killed by a suspected US missile strike near the Afghan border, Pakistani officials said Monday.

Sunday’s strike against a house in the North Waziristan tribal area was part of the Obama administration’s campaign to use drones to target militants who regularly stage cross-border attacks against foreign troops in Afghanistan.

Pakistani intelligence officials initially said the attack in Khaddi village killed six people but raised that number to nine on Monday. They spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorised to speak to the media.

The slain insurgent leader was identified only as Mustafa. The officials said he was linked to Sadiq Noor, a key Taliban figure in North Waziristan.

The nationalities of the foreign fighters were unclear.

Pakistan’s border region is considered a magnet for militants seeking to fight Nato forces in Afghanistan or train for terrorist attacks.

Three local tribesmen sheltering the militants were identified Sunday as among the dead.

Unmanned American drones have launched more than 100 missile strikes this year on targets in Pakistan, roughly double the number in all of 2009. The US refuses publicly to acknowledge the covert CIA attacks, but officials have said privately that they have killed several senior al Qaeda and Taliban commanders over the years.

Almost all of this year’s strikes have occurred in North Waziristan, an area in which the US has repeatedly requested Pakistan conduct a military offensive to neutralise the strongholds of insurgents threatening the war effort in Afghanistan. The Pakistani government has resisted, saying its military is already stretched thin by operations being conducted elsewhere.

Many analysts suspect, however, that Pakistan doesn’t want to cross Taliban militants with whom it has historical ties and could be useful allies in Afghanistan after foreign troops withdraw.

The US recently sought to expand the areas in which the drones can target Taliban and al Qaeda operatives, but Pakistan refused the request because of domestic opposition to the missile strikes, a Pakistani official said over the weekend.

He was responding to a Washington Post report that the US had sought permission to use the drones — now limited to the northwestern border region — in areas around Quetta, the capital of the southwestern province of Balochistan.

Pakistani officials often criticise the US drone strikes, calling them a violation of the country’s sovereignty.