Yep. It's Friday - the official window to the weekend, also known as Gateway To Drone-Induced Taliban Death, and the first U.S. predator drone strike has hit North Waziristan and has killed 3 Taliban.
From the report at The Long War Journal:
Hopefully, this strike hit a high value target al Qaeda jihadi or Taliban commander but we'll take it nonetheless.
From the report at The Long War Journal:
US Predator strike aircraft fired a barrage of missiles at a vehicle in Pakistan's Taliban-controlled tribal agency of North Waziristan today, killing three terrorists.Again, this is one of those "vehicle" targets - we literally hadn't seen any vehicles targeted up until about two or three months ago and to me this just shows how much more advanced our intel has gotten - not to mention the lessened risk of hitting a civilian or two who might have wandered into a compound.
Unmanned Predators or the more heavily armed and deadly Reapers launched a pair of missiles at a vehicle traveling in the village of Norak in the Mir Ali area, AFP reported. Three of the four "militants" traveling in the vehicle were reported killed.
No senior al Qaeda or Taliban fighters have been reported killed in the strike.
Since Sept. 8, a total of 16 Germans and two Britons have been reported killed in Predator strikes in the Mir Ali area. The Europeans were members of the Islamic Jihad Group, an al Qaeda affiliate based in the Mir Ali area. The IJU members are believed to be involved in a recently discovered al Qaeda plot that targeted several major European cities and was modeled after the terror assault on the Indian city of Mumbai in 2008.
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.
Hopefully, this strike hit a high value target al Qaeda jihadi or Taliban commander but we'll take it nonetheless.
US Predators kill 3 in North Waziristan
US Predator strike aircraft fired a barrage of missiles at a vehicle in Pakistan's Taliban-controlled tribal agency of North Waziristan today, killing three terrorists.
Unmanned Predators or the more heavily armed and deadly Reapers launched a pair of missiles at a vehicle traveling in the village of Norak in the Mir Ali area, AFP reported. Three of the four "militants" traveling in the vehicle were reported killed.
No senior al Qaeda or Taliban fighters have been reported killed in the strike.
Since Sept. 8, a total of 16 Germans and two Britons have been reported killed in Predator strikes in the Mir Ali area. The Europeans were members of the Islamic Jihad Group, an al Qaeda affiliate based in the Mir Ali area. The IJU members are believed to be involved in a recently discovered al Qaeda plot that targeted several major European cities and was modeled after the terror assault on the Indian city of Mumbai in 2008.
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.
Despite the fact that Bahadar and the Haqqani Network shelter al Qaeda and other South and Central Asian terror groups, the Pakistani government and military refuse to take action in North Waziristan. Bahadar and the Haqqanis are viewed as "good Taliban" as they do not attack the Pakistani state.
The Predator strikes, by the numbers
Today's strike is the 10th US attack in Pakistan this month. Four of those strikes have hit targets in the Mir Ali area.
The pace of the strikes since the beginning of September is unprecedented since the US began the air campaign in Pakistan in 2004. September's record number of 21 strikes was followed by 16 strikes 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 101 attacks inside Pakistan this year, which is more than double the number of strikes in Pakistan just two years earlier. A few months 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 a total of 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 101 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.]
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