Bingo - it's not the weekend full of predator drone strikes that I was hoping for but at least today the U.S. picked up from Friday's action by taking out a vehicle in North Waziristan that had 7 "foreigners" in it. Since there is the reference by the locals to "foreigners" I'm thinking this might have been all al Qaeda in it. If not, it was probably Uzbeks from the Taliban taken out.
From the report at The Long War Journal:
US Predators again attacked terrorist targets in Pakistan's Taliban-controlled tribal agency of North Waziristan. Today's strike is the seventh this month, and signals that the two-month-long slowdown in strikes has come to an end.
Unmanned Predators or the more deadly Reapers fired several missiles at a vehicle traveling in the Mir Ali area in North Waziristan today, killing seven "militants," local Pakistani officials told AFP.
"I do not know whether there was a high-value target. We received reports that those killed in the van were all foreigners," a Pakistani official told AFP.
No senior al Qaeda, Taliban, or other terrorist leaders have been reported killed in today's strike. Pakistani officials use the term "foreigners" to describe Arab al Qaeda and other terrorists from outside of Pakistan.
I know I've beaten this to death in the past but I still want to point out that we seem to be targeting nothing but vehicles now in these drone strikes - it's been awhile since the target was just a Taliban compound.
US Predators strike again in Mir Ali
US Predators again attacked terrorist targets in Pakistan's Taliban-controlled tribal agency of North Waziristan. Today's strike is the seventh this month, and signals that the two-month-long slowdown in strikes has come to an end.
Unmanned Predators or the more deadly Reapers fired several missiles at a vehicle traveling in the Mir Ali area in North Waziristan today, killing seven "militants," local Pakistani officials told AFP.
"I do not know whether there was a high-value target. We received reports that those killed in the van were all foreigners," a Pakistani official told AFP.
No senior al Qaeda, Taliban, or other terrorist leaders have been reported killed in today's strike. Pakistani officials use the term "foreigners" to describe Arab al Qaeda and other terrorists from outside of Pakistan.
Today's strike took place as the Taliban claimed credit for a complex assault on a heavily guarded Pakistani naval base in Karachi that has resulted in the deaths of several Pakistani security personnel. The Taliban fighters also destroyed at least two P-3C Orion aircraft and have taken several people hostage, including Chinese military personnel.
Also today, the Afghan Taliban denied a report that surfaced in the Afghan press that claimed Mullah Omar, the leader of the Taliban on both sides of the border, had been killed in Pakistan while he was being transferred from Quetta to North Waziristan. The Taliban released a statement on their website, Voice of Jihad, rejecting the reports.
"We strongly reject these false claims of the enemy and we confidently encourage our fellow countrymen, Mujahideen and the rest of the Muslims not to believe these intelligence lies and false reports," an official statement from the so-called Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan said.
Mir Ali is a terrorist haven
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. Taliban leader Hafiz Gul Bahadar and the Haqqani Network also operate in the Mir Ali area. Moreover, Mir Ali is a known hub for al Qaeda's military and external operations councils.
Since Sept. 8, 2010, 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.
Mir Ali also hosts at least three suicide training camps for the the Fedayeen-i-Islam, an alliance between the Pakistani Taliban, the anti-Shia Lashkar-e-Jhangvi, and Jaish-e-Mohammed. A Fedayeen spokesman recently claimed that more than 1,000 suicide bombers have trained at three camps. One failed suicide bomber corroborated the Fedayeen spokesman's statement, claiming that more than 350 suicide bombers trained at his camp.
Over the past year, 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 Bahadar or the Haqqani Network. Bahadar and the Haqqanis are considered "good Taliban" by the Pakistani military establishment as they do not carry out attacks inside Pakistan.
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