Key Pakistani Taliban Commander Killed Along With 4 Others In Roadside Bomb Attack

I'm a bit dumbfounded by this.  It's terrific news that this key Taliban commander in Pakistan's South Waziristan agency bit the dust when him and four other Taliban ragheads got blown up by a roadside bomb but I'm at a loss as to WHO DID IT?  Obviously, the Pakistani military isn't planting IEDs to kill Taliban and the article says no militant group has claimed responsibility - the only thing I can think of is that another faction of the Taliban wanted him taken out or he pissed off a group of foreign jihadis...like Uzbeks.

The article mentions the other "group" in the area but I don't know - it seems odd that they would carry this out by IED. 

The story comes from DAWN.

Key TTP commander among five killed in South Waziristan blast


PESHAWAR: A Pakistani Taliban commander believed to be harbouring foreign militants was killed along with four others in a roadside bomb explosion in South Waziristan tribal agency, officials said Thursday.

Ghulam Jan, believed to be a key commander of the outlawed Tehrik-i-Taliban Pakistan (TTP), was killed along with four accomplices when the improvised explosive device targeted his vehicle on Wednesday evening in Birmal tehsil, located about 27 kilometres from Wana, the main town in South Waziristan.

Assistant Political Agent Shahid Ali Khan confirmed that five people were killed in the blast which completely destroyed the vehicle.

Local officials confirmed the incident took place around 7 pm on Wednesday, but access to the area is limited and reports from the semi-autonomous tribal region, infested with Taliban and al Qaeda militants, are difficult to verify.

Jan, who had a reputation for supporting and harbouring Uzebk, Tajik and Central Asian militants, was earlier believed to have been ousted from the area by the pro-government Mullah Nazir group.

“He was anti-government and well known for his support to foreigners,” a official said on condition of anonymity.

The Mullah Nazir group had flushed out Uzbek fighters and anti-state militants from Wazir areas in 2008 and 2009.

Other people who had died in Wednesday’s blast were identified as Jan’s uncle, Juma Khan, and his close aides Mir Gul, Asmatullah and Kharote.

No militant group has yet claimed responsibility for the blast.

As Promised, U.S. Predator Drones Got a Big Fish In South Waziristan

 South Waziristan Taliban leader Mullah Nazir [bottom-center].

Okay, so I was half right yesterday when I said I was sure that the drone strike in South Waziristan was going to net us a big fish and that it would be an al Qaeda....I was right that we got the big fish but it was one of the top TALIBAN leaders, not an al Qaeda.


From The Long War Journal:

The US killed a senior Taliban leader in one of three drone strikes that took place in the Pakistani tribal areas over the past 24 hours; he had identified himself as an al Qaeda leader and also was favored by the Pakistani state. A separate strike killed a commander in the Movement of the Taliban in Pakistan along with two Uzbeks.

Mullah Nazir, the leader of the Taliban in the Wazir area of South Waziristan, was killed by the CIA-operated Predators or Reapers in a strike in the Birmal area of South Waziristan, tribal leaders and Pakistani intelligence officials told Dawn. The remotely piloted drones fired a pair of missiles at a vehicle, killing Nazir; two of his deputies, Atta Ullah and Rafey Khan; a commander known as Rata Khan; and two other fighters.

Pakistani officials in South Waziristan said that the Taliban buried Nazir at a graveyard in the Azam Warzak area of South Waziristan.

If you read this article, you understand better the issues of Pakistan - here is a Taliban leader that we killed but who literally had been off limits by the Pakistani government ...but he had professed allegiance to al Qaeda.  How in the world can the U.S. carry on any kind of security relationship with Pakistan when they protect what they deem a "good" Taliban leader but one who harbors and supports al Qaeda?  That has always been the issue with Pakistan.  Well, at least this guy can come off of Pakistan's "good" list and move over to the "dead" list.

'Good Taliban' leader Mullah Nazir killed in US drone strike


The US killed a senior Taliban leader in one of three drone strikes that took place in the Pakistani tribal areas over the past 24 hours; he had identified himself as an al Qaeda leader and also was favored by the Pakistani state. A separate strike killed a commander in the Movement of the Taliban in Pakistan along with two Uzbeks.

Mullah Nazir, the leader of the Taliban in the Wazir area of South Waziristan, was killed by the CIA-operated Predators or Reapers in a strike in the Birmal area of South Waziristan, tribal leaders and Pakistani intelligence officials told Dawn. The remotely piloted drones fired a pair of missiles at a vehicle, killing Nazir; two of his deputies, Atta Ullah and Rafey Khan; a commander known as Rata Khan; and two other fighters.

Pakistani officials in South Waziristan said that the Taliban buried Nazir at a graveyard in the Azam Warzak area of South Waziristan.

Nazir and his followers have been the targets of numerous US drone strikes in the past several years. Of the 328 strikes since 2004, 81 have hit targets in South Waziristan. Several of Nazir's deputies and commanders have been killed in those strikes.

In a separate strike, US drones killed Faisal Khan, a Movement of the Taliban in Pakistan commander, and two Uzbeks as they traveled in a vehicle in the village of Mubarak Shahi in the Mir Ali area of North Waziristan, Dawn reported. The drones circled back and fired a second salvo of missiles as rescue workers attempted to recover the bodies, but it is unclear if anyone else was killed in the follow-on strike.

Additionally, the US killed five "militants" in a strike that targeted a compound in the Angoor Agga area of South Waziristan late last night. The identities of those killed have not been disclosed.

The US has now launched three drone strikes in Pakistan this year. Last year, the US launched 46 strikes in Pakistan, according to data compiled by The Long War Journal. In 2011, the US launched 64 strikes; in 2010, when the program was at its peak, there were 117 strikes.

The program was ramped up by President George W. Bush in the summer of 2008 (35 strikes were launched that year) and continued under President Barack Obama after he took office in 2009 (53 strikes that year). From 2004-2007, only 10 strikes were recorded. Although some of al Qaeda's top leaders have been killed in drone strikes since the program began in 2004, al Qaeda has been able to replace those lost in the attacks. [For data on the strikes, see LWJ reports, Charting the data for US airstrikes in Pakistan, 2004 - 2013; and Senior al Qaeda and Taliban leaders killed in US airstrikes in Pakistan, 2004 - 2013.]

Background on Mullah Nazir

Nazir has been an influential Taliban commander and had ties to numerous terrorist groups operating in the region, including al Qaeda, the Pakistani and Afghan Taliban, and the plethora of Pakistani and Central Asia jihadist groups operating in the region. He has openly supported Taliban emir Mullah Omar and al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden, and wages jihad in Afghanistan. In an interview with the Asia Times, Nazir rejected claims that he opposed al Qaeda, and affirmed that he considered himself to be a member of the global terror organization.

Pakistan's military and intelligence services consider Nazir and his followers "good Taliban" as they do not openly seek the overthrow of the Pakistani state and only wage jihad in Afghanistan. The government has negotiated several peace deals with Nazir. Yet Nazir continued to provide safe have to top al Qaeda leaders and the Movement of the Taliban in Pakistan, despite agreeing not to do so.

Several top al Qaeda leaders, including Ilyas Kashmiri, Abu Khabab al Masri, Osama al Kini, Sheikh Ahmed Salim Swedan, and Abu Zaid al Iraqi, have been killed while being sheltered by Nazir. [For more information on Nazir and al Qaeda leaders killed while under his protection, see LWJ reports, 'Good' Pakistani Taliban leader Nazir affirms membership in al Qaeda, and US drones kill 'good' Taliban commander in South Wazirstan.]

Mullah Nazir's Taliban faction is one of four major Taliban groups that joined the Shura-e-Murakeba, an alliance brokered by al Qaeda in late 2011. The Shura-e-Murakeba also includes Hafiz Gul Bahadar's group; the Haqqani Network; and the Movement of the Taliban in Pakistan, which is led by Hakeemullah Mehsud and his deputy, Waliur Rehman Mehsud. The members of the Shura-e-Murakeba agreed to cease attacks against Pakistani security forces, refocus efforts against the US in Afghanistan, and end kidnappings and other criminal activities in the tribal areas.

In June 2012, Nazir banned polio vaccinations in his areas, and claimed that the program is being used by the US to gather intelligence and conduct drone strikes in the tribal areas. His action followed that of Hafiz Gul Bahadar, who shut down the program in North Waziristan earlier that month.

Nazir's death in a drone strike took place just five weeks after he was the target of a suicide attack in Wana in South Waziristan. Nazir survived the suicide bombing, but six other people were killed.

U.S. Predator Drones Swarm Targeted House In South Waziristan, 4 Hellfires Later...5 Jihadis Are Dead

If this report is right, coming from The Long War Journal, that FOUR U.S. predator drones were involved in a strike on a hideout in South Waziristan that killed five jihadis, I'd be willing to bet a LOT that there is at least one major big fish in this heap of dead terrorists.  It's not often you see four predator drones committed to one strike.  I'm also leaning to the fact that this was an al Qaeda target and not a Taliban one with that kind of desire to make sure of success.

Let's hope that later today or tomorrow we find out that we got a helluva prize.

US drone strike kills 5 'militants' in South Waziristan


The US conducted its first strike in Pakistan's Taliban-controlled tribal areas this year, killing five "militants," according to reports.

The remotely piloted Predators or the more deadly Reapers, which are operated by the CIA, attacked "a house suspected of being a militant hideout," according to Xinhua. Four of the unmanned strike aircraft are thought to have been circling the compound before firing four missiles just after midnight.

Five "militants" are thought to have been killed, but their identities have not been disclosed. No senior al Qaeda or Taliban leaders are known to have been killed.

Today's strike is the first in Pakistan this year. Last year, the US launched 46 strikes in Pakistan, according to data compiled by The Long War Journal. In 2011, the US launched 64 strikes; in 2010, when the program was at its peak, there were 117 strikes.

The program was ramped up by President George W. Bush in the summer of 2008 (35 strikes were launched that year) and continued under President Barack Obama after he took office in 2009 (53 strikes that year). From 2004-2007, only 10 strikes were recorded. Although some of al Qaeda's top leaders have been killed in drone strikes since the program began in 2004, al Qaeda has been able to replace those lost in the attacks. [For data on the strikes, see LWJ reports, Charting the data for US airstrikes in Pakistan, 2004 - 2013; and Senior al Qaeda and Taliban leaders killed in US airstrikes in Pakistan, 2004 - 2013.]

Strike takes place in territory controlled by "good Taliban" leader

Today's strike took place in an area under the control of Mullah Nazir, the leader of the Taliban in the Wazir areas of South Waziristan. Nazir has openly supported Taliban emir Mullah Omar and al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden, and wages jihad in Afghanistan. In an interview with the Asia Times, Nazir rejected claims that he opposed al Qaeda, and affirmed that he considered himself to be a member of the global terror organization. Pakistan's military and intelligence services consider Nazir and his followers "good Taliban" as they do not openly seek the overthrow of the Pakistani state.

Several top al Qaeda leaders, including Ilyas Kashmiri, Abu Khabab al Masri, Osama al Kini, Sheikh Ahmed Salim Swedan, and Abu Zaid al Iraqi, have been killed while being sheltered by Nazir. [For more information on Nazir and al Qaeda leaders killed while under his protection, see LWJ reports, 'Good' Pakistani Taliban leader Nazir affirms membership in al Qaeda, and US drones kill 'good' Taliban commander in South Wazirstan.]

Mullah Nazir's Taliban faction is one of four major Taliban groups that joined the Shura-e-Murakeba, an alliance brokered by al Qaeda in late 2011. The Shura-e-Murakeba also includes Hafiz Gul Bahadar's group; the Haqqani Network; and the Movement of the Taliban in Pakistan, which is led by Hakeemullah Mehsud and his deputy, Waliur Rehman Mehsud. The members of the Shura-e-Murakeba agreed to cease attacks against Pakistani security forces, refocus efforts against the US in Afghanistan, and end kidnappings and other criminal activities in the tribal areas.

In June 2012, Nazir banned polio vaccinations in his areas, and claimed that the program is being used by the US to gather intelligence and conduct drone strikes in the tribal areas. His action followed that of Hafiz Gul Bahadar, who shut down the program in North Waziristan earlier that month.

U.S. Predator Drone Takes Out al Qaeda Jihadis In South Waziristan, One Is All the Way From Yemen

A little bingo on a Saturday morning as a U.S. predator drone strike today in Pakistan, more specifically in South Waziristan netted three dead jihadis but of special interest was an al Qaeda operative reportedly based out of Yemen.

Now, I'm not sure why a Yemenese al Qaeda would be leaving Yemen at this point in time to go fight in Pakistan but I'm guessing it was some sort of meeting or training aspect that brought him to South Waziristan.  Well, no matter now.  I guess his little al Qaeda friends in Yemen will have a long wait at the dock or at the airport back in Yemen.

The article comes from DAWN.

Yemeni al Qaeda operative killed in South Waziristan drone attack: reports


PESHAWAR: A US drone fired missiles at a vehicle in Pakistan’s tribal South Waziristan region on Saturday, killing at least one man suspected to be an al Qaeda-linked foreign militant, officials said.

Officials said missiles from the unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) hit the car of a Yemeni al Qaeda-linked fighter known as Abdul Rehman al-Zaman Yemeni in Shin Warsak area, about 10km west of Wana, the main town in restive South Waziristan agency.

The vehicle was destroyed, killing the foreign militant, he confirmed.

The area of the attack was very close to where a drone had fired missile on another vehicle on Thursday. Three people were killed and one injured in the attack, including an Arab national, sources had initially reported.

However, another official today claimed an Arab national killed in the drone strike on Thursday was known as Sheikh Abdul Bari, an al Qaeda linked operative.

The officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak to the media.

South Waziristan is among Pakistan’s seven tribal districts near the Afghan border which are rife with homegrown and foreign insurgents and are alleged to be strongholds of Taliban and al Qaeda operatives.

The tribal region was once the main stronghold for the Pakistani Taliban. The military launched a large offensive against militants there in 2009, but insurgents still operate in the area and periodically stage attacks.

Reliable casualty figures are difficult to acquire in the tribal areas, which are largely off-limits to reporters, because of security worries and government restrictions.

U.S. Predator Drone Strike Kills Two Jihadis In South Waziristan, Pakistan

Okay, you aren't imagining anything when you think it's been forever since I've reported a drone strike from inside of Pakistan - it HAS been nearly forever and that is why I think this one must be significant.  First off, just the fact that it's been so long tells me that the target of this strike that killed two had to be too important to pass up.  And secondly, this was in South Waziristan - 90% of the American drone strikes happen in NORTH Waziristan - I'm guessing that in a day or two we are going to find out that we just got a hugely important al Qaeda or Taliban.  I could be wrong but I just have a feeling.

The story comes from DAWN.

US drone attack kills two suspected militants in South Waziristna


PESHAWAR: Two suspected militants were killed in a US drone attack inside Pakistan’s South Waziristan tribal region, DawnNews reported on Thursday.

Three missiles were fired in the Sheen Warsak area of Wana, which is the main town of the South Waziristan Agency.

According to local sources, the attack came late afternoon and was targeted at a house, resulting in the death of two suspected militants.

Pakistani Taliban Behead 7 Pakistani Soldiers In South Waziristan

In the aftermath of a Taliban attack on Pakistani troops in South Waziristan, the Taliban (Movement of the Taliban in Pakistan) have claimed that they beheaded 7 of the 20 Pakistani troops killed in the raid.

From The Long War Journal:

The Movement of the Taliban in Pakistan claimed to have "chopped off the heads" of seven Pakistani soldiers after attacking a military outpost in South Waziristan. In all, the Taliban claimed to have killed 20 Pakistani soldiers during the attack.

The claim was made yesterday by Ishanullah Ihsan, the spokesman for the al Qaeda-linked Movement of the Taliban in Pakistan, in an email sent to The Long War Journal.

Ihsan said that 20 Pakistani troops were killed after the Taliban attacked their camp in Badar, and that 29 assault rifles, three RPGs, a machinegun, a sniper rifle, a submachine gun, and "thousands of cartridges and many small military equipments" were seized during the raid. Ihsan said seven of the soldiers were beheaded in accordance with sharia, or Islamic Law.

"Mujahideen also chopped off the heads of 7 captured soldiers as Shariah directs them to do with enemies of Islam," Ihsan said.

As I stated the other day, the Taliban are desperate to try and stop the Pakistanis from conducting the North Waziristan operation so they have chosen to show their might in South Waziristan - part of the plan is to worry the Pakistanis that they can't cover their flanks in the North if the operation goes forward.  The problem with the Pakistani government is that they have allowed the Taliban to repopulate places like South Waziristan and Swat Valley after they, at one time, had cleared those areas.

Pakistani Taliban 'chopped off the heads' of 7 Pakistani soldiers in South Waziristan


The Movement of the Taliban in Pakistan claimed to have "chopped off the heads" of seven Pakistani soldiers after attacking a military outpost in South Waziristan. In all, the Taliban claimed to have killed 20 Pakistani soldiers during the attack.

The claim was made yesterday by Ishanullah Ihsan, the spokesman for the al Qaeda-linked Movement of the Taliban in Pakistan, in an email sent to The Long War Journal.

Ihsan said that 20 Pakistani troops were killed after the Taliban attacked their camp in Badar, and that 29 assault rifles, three RPGs, a machinegun, a sniper rifle, a submachine gun, and "thousands of cartridges and many small military equipments" were seized during the raid. Ihsan said seven of the soldiers were beheaded in accordance with sharia, or Islamic Law.

"Mujahideen also chopped off the heads of 7 captured soldiers as Shariah directs them to do with enemies of Islam," Ihsan said.

In the past, the Taliban previously released videos of the execution and beheading of Pakistani troops. On June 28, a video showing the heads of 17 Pakistani soldiers who had served in the district of Dir was released by the Taliban.

Pakistani officials confirmed that fighting took place at the Badar camp, and claimed that 18 Taliban fighters and only eight soldiers were killed during the clash, according to The Nation. Ihsan said that only one Taliban fighter was killed during the attack.

The Taliban have been battling the Pakistani military in the Mehsud areas of South Waziristan for nearly three years. In the fall of 2009, the military launched an operation to defeat the Movement of the Taliban in Pakistan, and in mid-November of that year claimed to have defeated the group in South Waziristan. But the Taliban group withdrew the bulk of its forces from the Mehsud tribal areas and relocated to neighboring tribal areas, maintaining a rearguard to fight the Pakistani military.

The Movement of the Taliban in Pakistan's South Waziristan branch, which is led by Waliur Rahman Mehsud, later returned to the tribal agency and stepped up the fight against the Pakistani military. Most of the engagements in South Waziristan are initiated by the Taliban, who have assaulted bases and checkposts, and ambushed military convoys.

Although it is now nearly three years since the Pakistani military commenced the South Waziristan operation, only one of the six areas targeted -- Sararogha -- has been certified by the military as cleared, according to a report in Dawn that was published on Aug. 5. The other five areas -- Shawal, Sarwakai, Tairza, Makeen, and Ladha -- are still contested.

Taliban Ambush Pakistani Checkpoint In South Waziristan, 6 Pakistani Soldiers Killed

The reports are all over the board here as to whether six or nine or 12 Pakistani soldiers were killed in a Taliban ambush of a checkpoint in South Waziristan this morning but either way, one of the biggest attacks on Pakistani military in a long time.  The military retaliated with the killing of at least 10 Taliban.

From the report at DAWN:

Six soldiers were killed when militants attacked a check post in the area of Badar in South Waziristan Agency (SWA), the Inter-Services Public Relations (ISPR) confirmed.

In retaliation, security forces reportedly killed at least 10 militants and a dozen militants had been injured, security sources told Dawn.com.

Dozens of militants armed with rockets and grenades stormed the checkpost in Farhang Baba Ziarat village, around 30 kilometres north of Wana, the main town of South Waziristan tribal district, a senior security official in Peshawar told AFP.

Six soldiers have been confirmed killed in the clashes and seven injured, the official said, adding that the toll was likely to rise. Ten militants were killed, he said.

Moreover, sources said that nine, and not six, soldiers had died in the attack.

I, personally, think this out of the blue attack is the Taliban's way of telling the Pakistani military that if they decide to start the operation in North Waziristan, the Taliban will step up attacks all over the northwestern part of the country - the message is that no operation better start in North Waziristan.  I still say the chances are slim for the operation but between civilians leaving North Waziristan and this attack, it might just be coming.

Six soldiers killed in South Waziristan clash, ISPR confirms


PESHAWAR: Six soldiers were killed when militants attacked a check post in the area of Badar in South Waziristan Agency (SWA), the Inter-Services Public Relations (ISPR) confirmed.

In retaliation, security forces reportedly killed at least 10 militants and a dozen militants had been injured, security sources told Dawn.com.

Dozens of militants armed with rockets and grenades stormed the checkpost in Farhang Baba Ziarat village, around 30 kilometres north of Wana, the main town of South Waziristan tribal district, a senior security official in Peshawar told AFP.

Six soldiers have been confirmed killed in the clashes and seven injured, the official said, adding that the toll was likely to rise. Ten militants were killed, he said.

Moreover, sources said that nine, and not six, soldiers had died in the attack.

Tehreek-i-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) claimed responsibility for the attack and said that they had killed at least a dozen soldiers.

TTP spokesman Ehsanullah Ehsan said “we have killed more than a dozen soldiers in South Waziristan. Some of the soldiers have been beheaded”.

The area is cut off to journalists and aid workers and it was not possible to confirm the death toll independently.

South Waziristan was once the main stronghold for the Pakistani Taliban. The military launched a large offensive against militants there in 2009, but insurgents still operate in the area and periodically stage attacks.

Is South Waziristan Going To Become a Killing Field For U.S. Drones?

Just last week I blogged about how NATO and the U.S. decided they had enough with the stalemates with Pakistan over supply routes and had settled on plans to use other central Asian countries in that endeavor and now, it appears that the U.S. is plenty pissed off at the Pakistanis' refusal to flush out the Haqqani Network from South Waziristan so the CIA is being given the green light to step up predator drones strikes in that agency.

From the report at DAWN:

Pakistan’s decision to suspend Nato supply routes has earned it the ire of the United States as US President Barack Obama approved an increase in CIA drone strikes in Pakistan’s territory on the same pretext, according to a report published in the LA Times, DawnNews reported.

The US has been mounting pressure on Pakistan to take effective action against the Haqqani network and militants in the South Waziristan region.

Here's the deal here with South Waziristan - the Pakistani military and government has refused, over the past four or five years, to conduct a military operation in South Waziristan - in every other province or agency in the northwest, they have - from Swat Valley to North Waziristan - the reason they have not touched South Waziristan is because that is where the Haqqani Network hang out and this faction of the Taliban are the ones that work with the Pakistani intelligence agency, the ISI.  The problem is this - this same Haqqani Network is the one that is making the most deadly attacks on U.S. troops inside of Afghanistan.  So we have the Pakistani government protecting the killers of U.S. troops in Afghanistan.

If this does go down...holy smokes..we are going to see some real death tallies coming out of South Waziristan - the Haqqanis don't have a whole lot of practice going underground to avoid drones.  At the same time, this is shaping up for some Pakistani retaliation against the drones.

Drone strikes in Pakistan to be stepped up: report


WASHINGTON: Pakistan’s decision to suspend Nato supply routes has earned it the ire of the United States as US President Barack Obama approved an increase in CIA drone strikes in Pakistan’s territory on the same pretext, according to a report published in the LA Times, DawnNews reported.

The US has been mounting pressure on Pakistan to take effective action against the Haqqani network and militants in the South Waziristan region.

A US-based newspaper claimed that the Obama administration frustrated with Pakistan, over its hesitance to take action against the Haqqani network, suspension of Nato supply routes and refusal to conduct an operation against militants in the South Waziristan region, has decided to direct the CIA to step up the drone strikes in Pakistan’s territory.

The CIA has launched eight Predator drone attacks since the May 20-21 Nato summit in Chicago.

It is noteworthy that the US has yet to declare the Haqqani network as a terrorist organisation, itself.

Taliban Gather In South Waziristan To Mourn Commander Killed In UAV Strike Yesterday...and U.S. Drones Hit the Mourners! 10 Dead in Strike

 Sunday’s attack in South Waziristan was the second in as many days and follows a surge in drone strikes in Pakistan since a Nato conference on Afghanistan in Chicago last month.      — File Photo

OMG.  I absolutely LOVE this latest drone strike in South Waziristan as a bunch of Taliban and al Qaeda types showed up today to mourn the loss of a Taliban commander who was killed yesterday in a U.S. drone strike...and just as all of these scumbags are together, a NEW predator drone strike hits their compound and vehicles and kills 10 of these asshats!   SWEEEEEET !

From DAWN:

US drone strikes targeting a militant house and vehicle in Pakistan’s northwestern tribal area killed at least ten suspected militants Sunday including two key militant commanders, security officials said, the second attack in 24 hours.

Two US drones fired four missiles at a house belonging to a suspected militant commander Malang Khan in Wacha Dana town, 10 kilometres west of Wana, the main town in the South Waziristan tribal district near the Afghan border, Pakistani security officials said.

At the time of the attack, suspected militants were gathered to offer condolences to the brother of a militant commander killed during an American unmanned drone attack on Saturday. The brother was one of those who died in the Sunday morning attack.

Officials said two of the dead were foreigners, and the rest were Pakistani where as one of the commanders killed in the attack was identified as Ghulam Khan belonging to the Maulvi Nazir group.

This just shows how comfortable the Taliban have become in South Waziristan over the years - they apparently didn't even consider that the drones would be back the next day to clean up any of those wanting to come and mourn or come to confirm the death and for that false sense of security, 10 of these piglets paid with their lives.

The fact of the matter is that U.S. drones could hit and kill Taliban every single day of the week in South Waziristan and never run out of targets - the only thing the drones would run out of might be hellfire missiles.

Drone strike kills ten in South Waziristan


PESHAWAR: US drone strikes targeting a militant house and vehicle in Pakistan’s northwestern tribal area killed at least ten suspected militants Sunday including two key militant commanders, security officials said, the second attack in 24 hours.

Two US drones fired four missiles at a house belonging to a suspected militant commander Malang Khan in Wacha Dana town, 10 kilometres west of Wana, the main town in the South Waziristan tribal district near the Afghan border, Pakistani security officials said.

At the time of the attack, suspected militants were gathered to offer condolences to the brother of a militant commander killed during an American unmanned drone attack on Saturday. The brother was one of those who died in the Sunday morning attack.

Officials said two of the dead were foreigners, and the rest were Pakistani where as one of the commanders killed in the attack was identified as Ghulam Khan belonging to the Maulvi Nazir group.

Sunday’s attack in South Waziristan was the second in as many days and the seventh attack in two weeks which follows a surge in drone strikes in Pakistan since a Nato conference on Afghanistan in Chicago last month.

Washington considers Pakistan’s semi-autonomous northwestern tribal belt the main hub of Taliban and al Qaeda militants plotting attacks on the West and in Afghanistan.

U.S. Predator Drones Get It Done Again..But This Time In SOUTH Waziristan

Apparently there is some news disputes as to just where the latest U.S. predator drone strike occurred and how many of the Taliban were actually killed in the UAV strike but at this point, who gives a shit?  As long as there are Taliban dead bodies and especially if one of them appears to be a commander, all is good.

The story comes from The Long War Journal.

US drones kill 'good' Taliban commander in South Wazirstan


The US killed a commander loyal to 'good' Taliban leader Mullah Nazir in a drone strike in South Waziristan. Today's strike is the first in South Waziristan since mid-March.

The remotely piloted Predators or the more deadly Reapers fired missiles at a vehicle and a motorcycle in a village near Wana. Dawn reportedthat the strike took place in the village of Doog and killed two Taliban fighters, while Geo News said the strike took place in Khawashi Khel and killed four fighters.

According to Dawn, Rahmanullah, "a key commander of the Mullah Nazir group and a brother of commander Malang of the same group," was killed in the strike. Nazir administers the Wana area and supports and shelters al Qaeda leaders and operatives.

Today's strike is the first in South Waziristan since mid-March. The last eight strikes have take place in Taliban-controlled North Waziristan.

Background on the US strikes in Pakistan

The US has carried out 19 strikes so far this year. Four took place in South Waziristan, and 15 in North Waziristan. Ten of the 15 strikes in North Waziristan have been executed in or around Miramshah, a hub of the Haqqani Network, which also supports al Qaeda.

Two high-value targets have been killed in the strikes this year. A Jan. 11 strike killed Aslam Awan, a deputy to the leader of al Qaeda's external operations network. The US also killed Badr Mansoor, a senior Taliban and al Qaeda leader, in a Feb. 8 strike in Miramshah's bazaar.

The program has been scaled down from its peak in 2010, when the US conducted 117 strikes, according to data collected by The Long War Journal. In 2011, the US carried out just 64 strikes in Pakistan's border regions.

So far this year, the US has launched more strikes in Yemen (21) against al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula than it has launched against al Qaeda and allied terror groups in Pakistan (19). In 2011, however, the US launched only 10 airstrikes in Yemen, versus 64 in Pakistan.

The drone program in Pakistan was put on hold as the US attempted to convince Pakistan to reopen the supply lines to Afghanistan. Pakistan closed the supply lines following the Mohmand incident in November 2011, in which US troops killed 24 Pakistani soldiers. The Pakistani soldiers were killed after they opened fire on US troops operating across the border in Kunar province, Afghanistan. After the US failed to convince Pakistan at NATO's summit in Chicago to reopen the supply lines, the strikes have increased. The US has launched six strikes in Pakistan since the NATO summit ended on May 21.

"Good Taliban" leader Mullah Nazir also an al Qaeda leader

Mullah Nazir has openly supported Taliban emir Mullah Omar and al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden, and wages jihad in Afghanistan. In an interview with the Asia Times, Nazir rejected claims that he opposed al Qaeda, and affirmed that he considered himself to be a member of the global terror organization.

"Al Qaeda and the Taliban are one and the same," Nazir said. "At an operational level we might have different strategies, but at the policy level we are one and the same.... This is wrong that I am anti-al Qaeda. I am part of al Qaeda."

Pakistan's military and intelligence services consider Nazir and his followers "good Taliban" as they do not openly seek the overthrow of the Pakistani state.

In the summer of 2009, the military signed a peace agreement with Nazir stipulating that he would not shelter al Qaeda or members of the Movement of the Taliban in Pakistan, which were based in the Mehsud tribal areas of South Waziristan. The Pakistani government launched a military operation against the Movement of the Taliban in Pakistan in October 2009, but left Nazir's areas untouched. Nazir has continued to allow the Movement of the Taliban in Pakistan, al Qaeda, and other terror groups safe haven in his tribal areas.

Significantly, more senior al Qaeda leaders have been killed in Nazir's tribal areas during the US air campaign than in those of any other Taliban leader in Pakistan. Nazir also shelters the Mehsuds from the Movement of the Taliban in Pakistan, in violation of the peace agreement with the Pakistani government.

In the past, the US has killed several senior al Qaeda leaders in Nazir's territories. Ilyas Kashmiri, the leader of al Qaeda's Lashkar-al-Zil, or Shadow Army, was killed on June 3, 2011 in a Predator strike in Nazir's tribal areas. Kashmiri, a longtime jihadist leader in Pakistan, also served on al Qaeda's external operations council.

Another senior al Qaeda leaders killed was Midhat Mursi al Sayyid Umar, better known as Abu Khabab al Masri. Abu Khabab was killed along with four members of his staff in a Predator strike on July 28, 2008.

Two other top al Qaeda leaders killed while in Nazir's care were Osama al Kini (Fahid Mohammed Ally Msalam), al Qaeda's operations chief in Pakistan; and Sheikh Ahmed Salim Swedan, one of al Kini's senior aides. They died in an airstrike in the town of Karikot on Jan. 1, 2009. Both men were wanted by the US for their involvement in the 1998 suicide attacks on the US embassies in Kenya and Tanzania.

The US believes it killed Abu Zaid al Iraqi during a Feb. 20, 2010 airstrike in Azam Warzak. Abu Zaid is said to be al Qaeda's top financier in Pakistan. In another strike in Nazir's territory in 2010, US Predators killed Abu Hazwa Jawfi, who is said to have led Jundallah, a Pakistani terror group that is based in Karachi and maintains close ties with al Qaeda.

It's DroneMania! U.S. Predator Drone Kills 5 Taliban/Al Qaeda In South Waziristan, Pakistan

No sooner had I posted the story of the U.S. drone strike on al Qaeda in Yemen when this story from DAWN popped up about U.S. drones taking out 5 Taliban/al Qaeda in South Waziristan this morning! Yessssss!

It appears to me that we must have gotten some juicy intelligence about some big fish in South Waziristan because it is a bit unusual to see these strikes taking place there as opposed to hitting North Waziristan which is teeming with both al Qaeda and Taliban.

From the report:

At least five suspected militants were killed as a US drone bombarded a vehicle with missiles in the tribal area of South Waziristan agency on Tuesday, security officials said.

The attack took place in the remote Drey Nishtar area of South Waziristan along the Afghan border, part of the semi-autonomous northwestern tribal belt that Washington considers a global hub of Taliban and Al-Qaeda militants.

The unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) reportedly fired two missiles at the pickup truck carrying the five passengers. The vehicle caught fire, causing the bodies to be burned and making identification difficult.

One security official said the far-flung and mountainous Drey Nishtar lies on the Afghan border where militants try to cross into Afghanistan to attack US-led Nato troops who have been fighting a Taliban insurgency for 10 years.

“A US drone fired two missiles into a vehicle. Five militants have been killed,” a second Pakistani security official told AFP on condition of anonymity because he was not authorised to speak to the media.

You gotta love when our drones take out a vehicle because the kill rate is so much higher - it's also amazing to me to see the level of intelligence ....we probably watched these clowns for a very long time, watched them get into a vehicle and when they were well on their way to their next stop......BOOM! It's nice to know that the bad guys in both of the Waziristans are now watching the skies and crapping their pants.

US drone strike kills five in South Waziristan


PESHAWAR: At least five suspected militants were killed as a US drone bombarded a vehicle with missiles in the tribal area of South Waziristan agency on Tuesday, security officials said.

The attack took place in the remote Drey Nishtar area of South Waziristan along the Afghan border, part of the semi-autonomous northwestern tribal belt that Washington considers a global hub of Taliban and Al-Qaeda militants.

The unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) reportedly fired two missiles at the pickup truck carrying the five passengers. The vehicle caught fire, causing the bodies to be burned and making identification difficult.

One security official said the far-flung and mountainous Drey Nishtar lies on the Afghan border where militants try to cross into Afghanistan to attack US-led Nato troops who have been fighting a Taliban insurgency for 10 years.

“A US drone fired two missiles into a vehicle. Five militants have been killed,” a second Pakistani security official told AFP on condition of anonymity because he was not authorised to speak to the media.

President Barack Obama in January confirmed for the first time that US drones target militants on Pakistani soil, but American officials do not discuss details of the covert programme.

The attacks fuel anti-American resentment in Pakistan, whose relations with the US nosedived over the covert raid that killed Osama bin Laden last May and air strikes that killed 24 Pakistani soldiers in November.

In Britain, a law firm said Sunday it would sue Foreign Secretary William Hague on behalf of a Pakistani man, whose father was killed by a drone strike, over claims that British intelligence was used to assist in attacks.

Lawyers will claim that civilian intelligence officers who pass on intelligence are not “lawful combatants”, therefore cannot claim immunity from criminal law and could be liable as “secondary parties to murder”.

They will also argue that the immunity clause does not apply as Pakistan is not currently involved in an “international armed conflict”.

The New America Foundation think-tank in Washington says drone strikes have killed between 1,715 and 2,680 people in Pakistan in the past eight years.

US diplomatic cables leaked by WikiLeaks in late 2010 showed that Pakistan’s civilian and military leaders privately supported US drone attacks, despite public condemnation in a country where the US alliance is hugely unpopular.

Islamabad is now reviewing its US alliance in the wake of the November deaths and has kept its Afghan border closed to Nato supply convoys since then.

It ordered US personnel to leave the Shamsi air base in southwestern Pakistan, widely believed to have been a hub for the CIA drone programme, and is thought likely to impose taxes on convoys if it reopens the Afghan border.

According to an AFP tally, 45 US missile strikes were reported in Pakistan’s tribal belt in 2009, the year Obama took office, 101 in 2010 and 64 in 2011. Tuesday’s attack was the ninth reported so far this year.

In North Waziristan, gunmen on Tuesday shot dead the top government official in the town of Mir Ali, Azmat Jamal, after barging into his office, Pakistani security officials said.

“Five gunmen managed to enter inside his office and opened fire on him, he was taken to hospital where he died,” one official told AFP.

“Attackers also hurled hand grenade before fleeing the scene,” a second official told AFP.

Long Awaited Paydirt - U.S. Predator Drones Kill 13 Taliban Scum In South Waziristan

Yes, it's been far too long since the last predator drone strike in Pakistan and it is a bit unusual that we hit SOUTH Waziristan today but hey, we'll take it especially when the news is that 13 Taliban/Al Qaeda are gonna feed the worms tonight.

From the report at The Long War Journal:

Unmanned US Predator or Reaper strike aircraft killed 13 "militants" in the Makeen area of Pakistan's Taliban-controlled tribal agency of South Waziristan today. The strikes broke a two-week-long lull in US attacks in the tribal areas.

The CIA-operated drones fired a pair of missiles at a vehicle and a home in the town of Makeen in South Waziristan, according to Dawn News, killing "at least" 13 people. Pakistani officials said that 12 "militants" were killed in the strike, according to The Associated Press.

Makeen is an area under the control of Hakeemullah Mehsud, the leader of the Movement of the Taliban in Pakistan, who is closely allied to al Qaeda. The US has struck targets in Makeen four other times in 2008 and 2009. One strike in June 2009 killed Khwaz Ali Mehsud, a top aide to Baitullah Mehsud, the former leader of the Movement of the Taliban in Pakistan, who also was killed in a drone strike in August 2009 in nearby Ladha.

In a controversial follow-up strike at the funeral for Khwaz Ali in Makeen, US drones killed 83 Pakistanis, including 30 "militants." Senior terrorist leaders including Haqqani Network commander Mullah Sangeen Zadran, and Baitullah and his deputy Qari Hussain Mehsud, were thought to be attending the funeral.

The exact target of today's strike was not disclosed. No senior al Qaeda or Taliban commanders have been reported killed.

When we get at least 13 of the bad guys, that usually means we fired around four to six hellfires in this strike - and 13 is a helluva total for one attack. Kudos to the CIA for making those missiles count.

Hopefully, we had intelligence that a big fish was in either that car or home and we can find out even better news in a few days.

US drones kill at least 13 in South Waziristan strike


Unmanned US Predator or Reaper strike aircraft killed 13 "militants" in the Makeen area of Pakistan's Taliban-controlled tribal agency of South Waziristan today. The strikes broke a two-week-long lull in US attacks in the tribal areas.

The CIA-operated drones fired a pair of missiles at a vehicle and a home in the town of Makeen in South Waziristan, according to Dawn News, killing "at least" 13 people. Pakistani officials said that 12 "militants" were killed in the strike, according to The Associated Press.

Makeen is an area under the control of Hakeemullah Mehsud, the leader of the Movement of the Taliban in Pakistan, who is closely allied to al Qaeda. The US has struck targets in Makeen four other times in 2008 and 2009. One strike in June 2009 killed Khwaz Ali Mehsud, a top aide to Baitullah Mehsud, the former leader of the Movement of the Taliban in Pakistan, who also was killed in a drone strike in August 2009 in nearby Ladha.

In a controversial follow-up strike at the funeral for Khwaz Ali in Makeen, US drones killed 83 Pakistanis, including 30 "militants." Senior terrorist leaders including Haqqani Network commander Mullah Sangeen Zadran, and Baitullah and his deputy Qari Hussain Mehsud, were thought to be attending the funeral.

The exact target of today's strike was not disclosed. No senior al Qaeda or Taliban commanders have been reported killed.

US strikes in Pakistan in 2012

Today's strike is the first in Pakistan's tribal areas in 14 days, and just the eighth this year. It is just the first in South Waziristan. The other seven strikes took place in North Waziristan; six of those strikes have taken place in or around Miramshah in North Waziristan, a stronghold of the Haqqani Network.

The program has been scaled down from its peak in 2010, when the US conducted 117 strikes. In 2011, the US carried out just 64 strikes in Pakistan's border regions. With just 8 strikes in the first 10 weeks of 2012, the US is on a pace to carry out just 42 strikes in Pakistan this year.

The first strike this year took place on Jan. 11; it was the first by the US in Pakistan in 55 days. The previous strike took place on Nov. 16, 2011. The pause was the longest since the program was ramped up at the end of July 2008 [see LWJ report, US drone strikes in Pakistan on longest pause since 2008, from Dec. 19, 2011].

The program was put on hold from the end of November to the second week in January, following a clash between US forces and Pakistani Frontier Corps troops on the border of the Afghan province of Kunar and the Pakistani tribal area of Mohmand on Nov. 25-26. The US troops struck in Pakistan after taking mortar and machine gun fire on the Afghan side of the border from Pakistani troops. Twenty-four Pakistani Frontier Corps troops were killed.

The clash led to Pakistan's closure of the border crossings in Chaman and Khyber to NATO supply columns destined for Afghanistan; the supply lines remain closed to this day. In the aftermath of the Mohmand incident, Pakistan also threatened to shoot down US drones flying in Pakistani airspace, and ejected US drones and personnel from the Shamsi Airbase in Baluchistan.

US officials told The Long War Journal on Dec. 12, 2011 that the program had been put "on hold" due to tensions over the Mohmand incident, but that the drones would strike again if a high value terrorist target that could not be ignored was spotted.

The Jan. 11 strike killed Aslam Awan, a deputy to the leader of al Qaeda's external operations network. Awan was a Pakistani citizen from Abbottabad, the same town where Osama bin Laden was killed by US forces in a cross-border raid in May 2011. Awan is the most senior al Qaeda leader killed in a drone strike since mid-October, when Abu Miqdad al Masri, a member of al Qaeda's Shura Majlis who also was involved in al Qaeda's external operations, was killed. [For a list of senior terrorist leaders and operatives killed in drone strikes, see LWJ report, Senior al Qaeda and Taliban leaders killed in US airstrikes in Pakistan, 2004 - 2012.]

Hakeemullah Mehsud, the leader of the Movement of the Taliban in Pakistan, was also rumored to have been killed in the Jan. 11 strike. His death has not been confirmed, however, and the Pakistani Taliban have denied he was killed.

The last strike took place on Feb. 8 in Miramshah's bazaar. Badr Mansoor, a senior Taliban and al Qaeda leader, was killed in the strike. Mansoor ran training camps in the area and sent fighters to battle NATO and Afghan forces across the border, and linked up members of the Harkat-ul-Mujahideen with al Qaeda to fight in Afghanistan.

Despite the US airstrikes, al Qaeda operatives claim they are still capable of conducting training and operations in the area. Abu Zubaydah al Lubnani, a Lebanese member of al Qaeda who operates along the Afghan-Pakistani border, has said that while the drones have "delayed some operations or even stopped them," the terror group is still functioning in the region.

"I want here to confirm that Qaedat al-Jihad is still standing in Khorasan, solid and strong, despite what hit it, and it is still producing operations and it doesn't know the path of despair...," Lubnani said in statement that was recently released on jihadist forums. The statement was translated by the SITE Intelligence Group.

U.S. Sends 5 Predator Drones To South Waziristan....10 Hellfires Later ....15 Taliban Are Dead and Gone

There is no question that this is the largest single predator drone strike ever conducted by the U.S. when 5 predator drones were sent into South Waziristan, Pakistan and they unloaded a payload of 10 hellfire missiles on a Taliban compound - the report from DAWN says that 15 to 18 Taliban were killed in the massive strike.

Perhaps we need to revise that famous quote to: "I love the smell of hellfires in the morning!"

From the article:

A salvo of missiles fired by US drones destroyed a Pakistani Taliban base on Wednesday, killing at least 15 suspected militants in Pakistan’s tribal badlands on the Afghan border, officials said.

Up to 10 missiles slammed into the sprawling compound in the Baber Ghar area of South Waziristan, killing between 15 and 18 militants, most of whom were reported to be local Taliban fighters, the Pakistani security officials said.

Five US drones carried out the attack, one of the officials told AFP.

“The target was a base of Pakistan Taliban. We have reports that 16 to 18 militants were killed in the attack,” the official told AFP in the northwestern city of Peshawar.

Another official in Peshawar put the death toll at 15.

But a third official in Wana, the main town of South Waziristan, said 16 militants were killed, while also confirming that the target was a base of Pakistan’s umbrella Taliban faction, Tehreek-e-Taliban.

“I have reports that some foreigners were also killed,” the official told AFP. Pakistani officials typically use the word “foreigner” to denote al Qaeda and Uzbek Islamist militants.

Make no mistake, this was a huge strike and for the U.S. to send five drones to one target tells me that there HAD to be some big fish in this compound. I am convinced that later today or in the next few days, we are going to hear the news reported that one or more very senior Taliban or Al Qaeda leaders were taken out in this strike.

What an awesome start to the day, eh?

At least 15 dead in South Waziristan drone strike


MIRAMSHAH: A salvo of missiles fired by US drones destroyed a Pakistani Taliban base on Wednesday, killing at least 15 suspected militants in Pakistan’s tribal badlands on the Afghan border, officials said.

Up to 10 missiles slammed into the sprawling compound in the Baber Ghar area of South Waziristan, killing between 15 and 18 militants, most of whom were reported to be local Taliban fighters, the Pakistani security officials said.

Five US drones carried out the attack, one of the officials told AFP.

“The target was a base of Pakistan Taliban. We have reports that 16 to 18 militants were killed in the attack,” the official told AFP in the northwestern city of Peshawar.

Another official in Peshawar put the death toll at 15.

But a third official in Wana, the main town of South Waziristan, said 16 militants were killed, while also confirming that the target was a base of Pakistan’s umbrella Taliban faction, Tehreek-e-Taliban.

“I have reports that some foreigners were also killed,” the official told AFP. Pakistani officials typically use the word “foreigner” to denote al Qaeda and Uzbek Islamist militants.

“The area is far-flung and deep in the mountains. We are having difficulties in getting complete information,” the same official added.

Officials said the attack took place at around 2:30 am about three kilometres from the border of Afghanistan’s Paktia province, one of the flashpoints in the 10-year Taliban insurgency.

Wednesday’s strike was the 63rd so far this year, according to an AFP tally.

On Tuesday, six militants were reported killed in a similar drone strike in Miramshah, the main town of the adjacent North Waziristan district.

U.S. Predator Drone Strike of the Year Kills Five Taliban Commanders In Pakistan

That's right - this was the drone strike of the year as U.S. predator drones pumped five hellfire missiles into a vehicle near Tora Gola killing five commanders of one of the most targeted Taliban groups. And once again we see what kind of quality intelligence the CIA is getting for these drone strikes - let's face it...when we fire FIVE hellfires into a moving vehicle, you know we have the info that there is important cargo on board. We've probably all seen what just one hellfire does to a vehicle....now take that times five. Nope, we didn't want a single one of these guys walking away from this one.

From the article at DAWN:

A US drone strike on a vehicle on Thursday killed five commanders of one of Pakistan’s most influential Taliban leaders, Maulvi Nazir, one of the faction’s senior commanders told Reuters.

He identified four of the commanders as Hazrat Omar, Nazir’s younger brother, Khan Mohammad, Miraj Wazir and Ashfaq Wazir.

According to initial details, five missiles were fired on a vehicle carrying several passengers.

The vehicle was traveling from Tora Gola village to the nearby area of Azam Warsak when it was hit.

“Nazir’s younger brother Omar Wazir has been killed, it has been confirmed,” a Pakistani security official told AFP.

Another Pakistani intelligence official also confirmed his death.

Residents and security officials in the region described the 27-year-old as the operational head for the Nazir group, and a close aide of his brother.

This marks the first drone strike in quite a few days but that drought certainly was worth it to get this quality of a hit. This, believe me, is going to send shock waves across the Taliban world in both Pakistan and Afghanistan.

Drone strike “kills five Taliban commanders” in South Waziristan


PESHAWAR: A US drone strike on a vehicle on Thursday killed five commanders of one of Pakistan’s most influential Taliban leaders, Maulvi Nazir, one of the faction’s senior commanders told Reuters.

He identified four of the commanders as Hazrat Omar, Nazir’s younger brother, Khan Mohammad, Miraj Wazir and Ashfaq Wazir.

According to initial details, five missiles were fired on a vehicle carrying several passengers.

The vehicle was traveling from Tora Gola village to the nearby area of Azam Warsak when it was hit.

“Nazir’s younger brother Omar Wazir has been killed, it has been confirmed,” a Pakistani security official told AFP.

Another Pakistani intelligence official also confirmed his death.

Residents and security officials in the region described the 27-year-old as the operational head for the Nazir group, and a close aide of his brother.

He adopted a low profile, going to Afghanistan, assigning duties to the fighters and supervising logistic arrangements for their missions, they said.

“They are a very important group because while they are based in Pakistan they are very active in Afghanistan,” said Mansur Khan Mehsud of the Fata Research Centre think tank.

“If you look at drone strikes, they are one of the most heavily targeted groups.”

After a Drought, U.S. Predator Drones Kill 4 Taliban In South Waziristan

Okay, it's been a whole 19 days since I've been able to report a predator drone strike in Pakistan's NW provinces/agencies but today we did strike paydirt with 4 Taliban/al Qaeda being killed in the South Waziristan area.

From the article at The Long War Journal:

US Predators struck for the first time in 19 days in Pakistan's Taliban-controlled tribal agencies, killing four "militants" in an attack in South Waziristan.

The unmanned Predators or the more deadly Reapers fired two missiles at a compound in the Azam Warzak area of South Waziristan, according to AFP.

No senior commanders from the Taliban, al Qaeda, or allied terror groups based in the area are reported to have been killed.

Today's attack in South Waziristan took place in an area of South Waziristan that controlled by Mullah Nazir, the leader of the Taliban in the Waziri tribal areas. Azam Warzak is on the border with Afghanistan, and is a transit point for Taliban, al Qaeda, and other terrorists heading to and from Pakistan's war-torn neighbor. Senior al Qaeda leaders are also thought to shelter in Azam Warzak.

I have no idea why we seem to take these extended breaks in drone strikes - I often wonder if there is literally daily okays that come through linked to what is happening politically between the U.S. and Pakistan, and as we all know, the current climate between Pakistan and the U.S. is probably at its lowest point in over 10 years. The fact that Barack Hussein Obama is President has nothing to do with that, right?

US Predators kill 4 'militants' in South Waziristan strike


US Predators struck for the first time in 19 days in Pakistan's Taliban-controlled tribal agencies, killing four "militants" in an attack in South Waziristan.

The unmanned Predators or the more deadly Reapers fired two missiles at a compound in the Azam Warzak area of South Waziristan, according to AFP.

No senior commanders from the Taliban, al Qaeda, or allied terror groups based in the area are reported to have been killed.

Today's attack in South Waziristan took place in an area of South Waziristan that controlled by Mullah Nazir, the leader of the Taliban in the Waziri tribal areas. Azam Warzak is on the border with Afghanistan, and is a transit point for Taliban, al Qaeda, and other terrorists heading to and from Pakistan's war-torn neighbor. Senior al Qaeda leaders are also thought to shelter in Azam Warzak.

"Good Taliban" leader Mullah Nazir also an al Qaeda leader

Mullah Nazir has openly supported Taliban emir Mullah Omar and al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden, and wages jihad in Afghanistan. In an interview with the Asia Times, Nazir rejected claims that he opposed al Qaeda, and affirmed that he considered himself to be a member of the global terror organization.

"Al Qaeda and the Taliban are one and the same," Nazir said. "At an operational level we might have different strategies, but at the policy level we are one and the same.... This is wrong that I am anti-al Qaeda. I am part of al Qaeda."

Pakistan's military and intelligence services consider Nazir and his followers "good Taliban" as they do not openly seek the overthrow of the Pakistani state.

In the summer of 2009, the military signed a peace agreement with Nazir stipulating that he would not shelter al Qaeda or members of the Movement of the Taliban in Pakistan, which were based in the Mehsud tribal areas of South Waziristan. The Pakistani government launched a military operation against the Movement of the Taliban in Pakistan in October 2009, but left Nazir's areas untouched. Nazir has continued to allow the Movement of the Taliban in Pakistan, al Qaeda, and other terror groups safe haven in his tribal areas.

Significantly, more senior al Qaeda leaders have been killed in Nazir's tribal areas during the US air campaign than in those of any other Taliban leader in Pakistan. Nazir also shelters the Mehsuds from the Movement of the Taliban in Pakistan, in violation of the peace agreement with the Pakistani government.

In the past, the US has killed several senior al Qaeda leaders in Nazir's territories. One of the most senior al Qaeda leaders killed was Midhat Mursi al Sayyid Umar, who is better known as Abu Khabab al Masri. Abu Khabab was killed along with four members of his staff in a Predator strike on July 28, 2008.

Two other top al Qaeda leaders killed while in Nazir's care were Osama al Kini (Fahid Mohammed Ally Msalam), al Qaeda's operations chief in Pakistan; and Sheikh Ahmed Salim Swedan, one of al Kini's senior aides. Both men were wanted by the US for their involvement in the 1998 suicide attacks on the US embassies in Kenya and Tanzania.

The US believes it killed Abu Zaid al Iraqi during a Feb. 20, 2010 airstrike in Azam Warzak. Abu Zaid is said to be al Qaeda's top financier in Pakistan.

In another strike in Nazir's territory, US Predators also killed Abu Hazwa Jawfi, who is said to have led Jundallah, a Pakistani terror group that is based in Karachi and maintains close ties with al Qaeda.

Also, Ilyas Kashmiri, the leader of al Qaeda's Lashkar-al-Zil, or Shadow Army, is reported to have been killed in a June 3 Predator strike in Nazir's tribal areas. Kashmiri's death has not been confirmed, however.

The Predator strikes, by the numbers

Today's strike is the first in Pakistan's tribal areas this month, and first since July 12, when a "hideout of al Qaeda-linked terrorists" was struck in the Birmal area of South Waziristan, killing eight terrorists.
From January through June 2011, the strikes in Pakistan were as follows: nine strikes in January, three strikes in February, seven in March, two in April, seven in May, 12 in June, and three in July. In the last four month of 2010, the US averaged almost 16 strikes per month (21 in September, 16 in October, 14 in November, and 12 in December).

So far this year, the US has carried out 44 strikes in Pakistan, and is well off the pace of the 117 attacks that took place in 2010. In 2010, the US more than doubled the number of strikes that had occurred in 2009; by late August 2010, the US had exceeded 2009's strike total of 53 with a strike in Kurram. 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 - 2011.]

In 2010 the strikes were concentrated almost exclusively in North Waziristan, where the Afghan and Pakistani Taliban, the Haqqani Network, al Qaeda, and a host of Pakistani and Central and South Asian terror groups are based. All but 13 of the 117 strikes took place North Waziristan. Of the 13 strikes occurring outside of North Waziristan in 2010, seven were executed in South Waziristan, five were in Khyber, and one was in Kurram. This year, an increasing number of strikes are taking place in South Waziristan. So far in 2011, 27 of the 44 strikes have taken place in North Waziristan, 16 strikes have occurred in South Waziristan, and one took place in Kurram.

Since Sept. 1, 2010, the US has conducted 105 strikes in Pakistan's tribal agencies. The bulk of those attacks have aimed at the terror groups in North Waziristan, with 81 strikes in the tribal agency. Many of the strikes have targeted cells run by the Islamic Jihad Group, which have been plotting to conduct Mumbai-styled terror assaults in Europe. A Sept. 8 strike killed an IJG commander known as Qureshi, who specialized in training Germans to conduct attacks in their home country.

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. The campaign has been largely successful in focusing on terrorist targets and avoiding civilian casualties, as recently affirmed by the Pakistani military.

Two U.S. Predator Drone Strikes Today...Kill 15 Taliban In South and North Waziristan

Huge day for our predator drones today as we struck with hellfires in both South and North Waziristan. I was just about to put up this morning that with all the crap that is going on politically between the U.S. and Pakistan right now, that we might not see another drone strike for weeks, and to my surprise we had the twin strikes today. Excellent.

From The Long War Journal:

US Predators struck again in Pakistan's Taliban-controlled tribal agencies of South and North Waziristan today, killing 15 "militants," according to reports from the region.

The first strike took place near Wana, the main town in South Waziristan. The unmanned Predators or Reapers fired missiles at a compound and a vehicle in the area. Seven Taliban fighters loyal to Mullah Nazir were reported killed at the compound, and three more were killed in the vehicle.

In the second strike, Predators fired four missiles at a vehicle in the Miranshah area of North Waziristan, an area under the control of the al Qaeda-linked Haqqani Network. Five more "militants" were killed in the attack.

The exact targets of the strikes are unclear; Nazir and the Haqqanis are known to shelter senior and mid-level Taliban leaders in their tribal areas. No senior Taliban or al Qaeda leaders have been reported killed in the strike.

The US has shifted its focus from the Taliban-held and al Qaeda-infested tribal agency of North Waziristan to South Waziristan over the past month. Six of the eight strikes since June 1 have taken place in South Waziristan.

You see the mention there of the shift of these strikes to South Waziristan from almost exclusively in North Waziristan the past 9 months. It's obvious that the numbers of Taliban have returned in South Waziristan and the other obvious thing is we have some damn good intelligence sources in South Waziristan at the moment.

Hopefully, we'll be able to keep this up but I'm afraid that any day now we are going to see the Pakistani government and/or military lose their cool on these strikes and demand an end to them. I hope I'm wrong.

US Predator strike kills 15 'militants' in South and North Waziristan


US Predators struck again in Pakistan's Taliban-controlled tribal agencies of South and North Waziristan today, killing 15 "militants," according to reports from the region.

The first strike took place near Wana, the main town in South Waziristan. The unmanned Predators or Reapers fired missiles at a compound and a vehicle in the area. Seven Taliban fighters loyal to Mullah Nazir were reported killed at the compound, and three more were killed in the vehicle.

In the second strike, Predators fired four missiles at a vehicle in the Miranshah area of North Waziristan, an area under the control of the al Qaeda-linked Haqqani Network. Five more "militants" were killed in the attack.

The exact targets of the strikes are unclear; Nazir and the Haqqanis are known to shelter senior and mid-level Taliban leaders in their tribal areas. No senior Taliban or al Qaeda leaders have been reported killed in the strike.

The US has shifted its focus from the Taliban-held and al Qaeda-infested tribal agency of North Waziristan to South Waziristan over the past month. Six of the eight strikes since June 1 have taken place in South Waziristan.

Nazir's followers have threatened to step up attacks against US and NATO forces in Afghanistan to retaliate for the increase in Predator strikes. On June 8, two of Nazir's top commanders vowed to take such action.

"Because the United States is launching these strikes we will send more fighters to Afghanistan and step up our operations against US forces," Maulvi Younus, a senior Taliban commander and spokesman for Mullah Nazir, told Reuters. "We have no other option. We have no weapons which shoot them (drone aircraft) down so we will fight the United States in Afghanistan."

"We have lots of mujahideen (holy warriors)," Qari Yousaf, one of Nazir's aides, told Reuters. "It is not a problem. If drone strikes continue we believe many tribesmen will join us because they (drone strikes) are killing ordinary people. Our shura will decide on the appropriate time to send more fighters and how many will go."

"Good Taliban" leader Mullah Nazir also an al Qaeda leader

Today's attack in South Waziristan took place in areas controlled by Mullah Nazir, the leader of the Taliban in the Waziri tribal areas. Nazir has openly supported Taliban emir Mullah Omar and al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden, and wages jihad in Afghanistan. In an interview with the Asia Times, Nazir rejected claims that he opposed al Qaeda, and affirmed that he considered himself to be a member of the global terror organization.

"Al Qaeda and the Taliban are one and the same," Nazir said. "At an operational level we might have different strategies, but at the policy level we are one and the same.... This is wrong that I am anti-al Qaeda. I am part of al Qaeda."

Pakistan's military and intelligence services consider Nazir and his followers "good Taliban" as they do not openly seek the overthrow of the Pakistani state.

In the summer of 2009, the military signed a peace agreement with Nazir stipulating that he would not shelter al Qaeda or members of the Movement of the Taliban in Pakistan, which were based in the Mehsud tribal areas of South Waziristan. The Pakistani government launched a military operation against the Movement of the Taliban in Pakistan in October 2009, but left Nazir's areas untouched. Nazir has continued to allow the Movement of the Taliban in Pakistan, al Qaeda, and other terror groups safe haven in his tribal areas.

Significantly, more senior al Qaeda leaders have been killed in Nazir's tribal areas during the US air campaign than in those of any other Taliban leader in Pakistan. Nazir also shelters the Mehsuds from the Movement of the Taliban in Pakistan, in violation of the peace agreement with the Pakistani government.

In the past, the US has killed several senior al Qaeda leaders in Nazir's territories. One of the most senior al Qaeda leaders killed was Midhat Mursi al Sayyid Umar, who is better known as Abu Khabab al Masri. Abu Khabab was killed along with four members of his staff in a Predator strike on July 28, 2008.

Two other top al Qaeda leaders killed while in Nazir's care were Osama al Kini (Fahid Mohammed Ally Msalam), al Qaeda's operations chief in Pakistan; and Sheikh Ahmed Salim Swedan, one of al Kini's senior aides. Both men were wanted by the US for their involvement in the 1998 suicide attacks on the US embassies in Kenya and Tanzania.

In another strike in Nazir's territory, US Predators also killed Abu Hazwa Jawfi, who is said to have led Jundallah, a Pakistani terror group that is based in Karachi and maintains close ties with al Qaeda.

Also, Ilyas Kashmiri, the leader of al Qaeda's Lashkar-al-Zil, or Shadow Army, is reported to have been killed in a June 3 Predator strike in Nazir's tribal areas. Kashmiri's death has not been confirmed, however.

The Predator strikes, by the numbers

Today's strikes in South and North Waziristan are the first since June 8, when the Predators hit targets in both North and South Waziristan. More than 20 people, including "foreign and militants from Pakistan's central Punjab province" were killed during the strike in Shawal, South Waziristan. The term "foreigners" is used to describe members of al Qaeda and other terror groups from outside Pakistan that are allied with al Qaeda. Punjabi "militants" belong to terror groups such as Lashkar-e-Taiba, Lashkar-e-Jhangvi, Jaish-e-Mohammed, and Harkat-ul-Jihad-al-Islami.

So far this year, the US has carried out 36 strikes in Pakistan, and is well off the pace of the 2010 total of 117 attacks. In 2010, the US more than doubled the number of strikes that had occurred in 2009; by late August 2010, the US had exceeded 2009's strike total of 53 with a strike in Kurram. 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 - 2011.]

In 2010 the strikes were concentrated almost exclusively in North Waziristan, where the Afghan and Pakistani Taliban, the Haqqani Network, al Qaeda, and a host of Pakistani and Central and South Asian terror groups are based. All but 13 of the 117 strikes took place North Waziristan. Of the 13 strikes occurring outside of North Waziristan in 2010, seven were executed in South Waziristan, five were in Khyber, and one was in Kurram. This year, an increasing number of strikes are taking place in South Waziristan. So far in 2011, 25 of the 36 strikes have taken place in North Waziristan; the other 11 strikes have occurred in South Waziristan.

Since Sept. 1, 2010, the US has conducted 96 strikes in Pakistan's tribal agencies. The bulk of those attacks have aimed at the terror groups in North Waziristan, with 76 strikes in the tribal agency. Many of the strikes have targeted cells run by the Islamic Jihad Group, which have been plotting to conduct Mumbai-styled terror assaults in Europe. A Sept. 8 strike killed an IJG commander known as Qureshi, who specialized in training Germans to conduct attacks in their home country.

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. The campaign has been largely successful in focusing on terrorist targets and avoiding civilian casualties, as recently affirmed by the Pakistani military.

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 - 2011.

Taliban, With a Force of 150 Fighters, Attack Pakistani Military Post In South Waziristan....8 Pakistani Soldiers Killed

This is probably the largest single loss of life by Pakistan's military in over a year as 8 Pakistani soldiers manning a military outpost in South Waziristan were killed today when a large force of Taliban descended on that post from the mountains. In the subsequent counterattack by Pakistani forces, 12 of the Taliban were killed.

From the report at The Long War Journal:

The Movement of the Taliban in Pakistan has regrouped in the tribal agency of South Waziristan. Today, a heavily armed Taliban force estimated at 150 fighters attacked a military post in the town of Makeen and killed eight Pakistani troops. Twelve Taliban fighters were reported killed in the counterattack. From Reuters:

Around 150 militants armed with rockets attacked a security checkpost in Pakistan's Waziristan on Thursday, killing eight soldiers, intelligence officials said, as tensions rise in the border region. Twelve militants were killed in retaliatory firing by security forces.

The attack came on the heels of stepped-up missile strikes by U.S. drone aircraft in the tribal region along the Afghan border regarded as a hub of militants from around the world.

"The militants were carrying rockets and heavy weapons and attacked the checkpost shortly after midnight," an intelligence official in the region told Reuters.

"Eight soldiers were killed and twelve were wounded," he added. Security forces hit back at the militants, killing at least 12 of them and wounding five, another official said.

Makeen was once a stronghold of Hakeemullah Mehsud, the overall leader of the Movement of the Taliban in Pakistan. This area is not under the control of Mullah Nazir, who has been the focus of five Predator airstrikes this month. Hakeemullah and Nazir are rivals of sorts (although Nazir has allowed Hakeemullah's forces to shelter in his tribal areas after the Pakistani Army launched an offensive against the Mehsuds in October 2009).

My theory on this is that the Pakistani military made a big mistake over a year ago - they went into South Waziristan and really did gut the place for Taliban. However, most of the Taliban there just simply fled to the neighboring agency of North Waziristan. The Pakistani government refused to invest in another operation to clean out North Waziristan and so, a year later, we have now seen the Taliban filter back into South Waziristan. We have seen this same tactic in Afghanistan ....there were areas of Helmand province that the British would go in and clean out but would simply move on to other areas and the Taliban would then backfill the area that was just cleaned out.

Bottom line here is that the Pakistanis are paying the price for literally no military operations against the Taliban in over six months - the Taliban have regrouped, they have brought in more and more fighters and now they are on the warpath.

Taliban kill 8 Pakistani soldiers in South Waziristan attack



The Movement of the Taliban in Pakistan has regrouped in the tribal agency of South Waziristan. Today, a heavily armed Taliban force estimated at 150 fighters attacked a military post in the town of Makeen and killed eight Pakistani troops. Twelve Taliban fighters were reported killed in the counterattack. From Reuters:

Around 150 militants armed with rockets attacked a security checkpost in Pakistan's Waziristan on Thursday, killing eight soldiers, intelligence officials said, as tensions rise in the border region. Twelve militants were killed in retaliatory firing by security forces.

The attack came on the heels of stepped-up missile strikes by U.S. drone aircraft in the tribal region along the Afghan border regarded as a hub of militants from around the world.

"The militants were carrying rockets and heavy weapons and attacked the checkpost shortly after midnight," an intelligence official in the region told Reuters.

"Eight soldiers were killed and twelve were wounded," he added. Security forces hit back at the militants, killing at least 12 of them and wounding five, another official said.

Makeen was once a stronghold of Hakeemullah Mehsud, the overall leader of the Movement of the Taliban in Pakistan. This area is not under the control of Mullah Nazir, who has been the focus of five Predator airstrikes this month. Hakeemullah and Nazir are rivals of sorts (although Nazir has allowed Hakeemullah's forces to shelter in his tribal areas after the Pakistani Army launched an offensive against the Mehsuds in October 2009).

The Pakistani military has claimed it defeated Hakeemullah's forces, but the group preserved the bulk of its fighting forces and all of its leaders by conducting a tactical withdrawal and leaving a rearguard force behind to battle the government troops. Meanwhile, the Pakistani military fought a halfhearted campaign. The military "largely stayed close to the roads and did not engage against those [Pakistani Taliban] militants who returned after fleeing into North Waziristan," according to a US government report that was leaked in October 2010.

It's Raining Hellfires In South Waziristan As THREE U.S. Predator Drone Strikes Take Out 18 Foreign Taliban/al Qaeda

Whoa! Not one predator drone strike today....and not two....but THREE separate drone strikes went down in South Waziristan and the final total of Taliban/al Qaeda dead is set at 18. Local intelligence and officials make note that most of the dead are "foreigners."

From the article at The Long War Journal:

Unmanned Predators or the more deadly Reapers launched attacks today in three separate areas of South Waziristan that are under Taliban control. Seven "Punjabi Taliban" terrorists, as well as Arabs, Uzbeks, and a Turk, are reported to be among those killed.

The first strike took place at a compound in Shalam Raghzai in the Wana area of South Waziristan, according to The New York Times. The second strike hit a "suspected militant compound" in Wacha Dana, just seven miles outside of Wana. The third strike hit a vehicle in the village of Darnashtra in the Shawal area.

Eighteen people have been reported killed in the three strikes. No senior Taliban or al Qaeda leaders have been reported killed at this time, but a number of foreigners are said to be among those killed.

"Most of those killed in the drone strikes are said to be foreigners," a Pakistani intelligence official told The New York Times. "Their nationalities are described to be Arabs, Uzbeks and at least one Turk."

Seven "Punjabi Taliban" were said to have been killed in one of the strikes, according to Reuters. The term 'Punjabi Taliban' is used to describe al Qaeda-affiliated terrorists from Pakistani groups such as the Lashkar-e-Jhangvi, Lashkar-e-Taiba, Harkat-ul-Jihad-al-Islami, and Jaish-e-Mohammed. Many leaders and members of these terror groups are known to shelter in Pakistan's tribal areas.

It's pretty obvious to me that what has happened in the past week is that a treasure trove of intelligence has come into the CIA and it might even be some info that came out of confiscated materials from the bin Laden killing - and the result is that we are throwing everything we have at South Waziristan this past week.

This, of course, is the same area that yielded the reported killing of Kashmiri and it makes sense that he would have been surrounded by these jihadis from other countries. But any way that you look at it, taking out 18 Taliban/al Qaeda in one day is incredible - we have seen two week slots where we haven't seen that kind of death toll.

US Predators strike 3 targets in South Waziristan


Unmanned Predators or the more deadly Reapers launched attacks today in three separate areas of South Waziristan that are under Taliban control. Seven "Punjabi Taliban" terrorists, as well as Arabs, Uzbeks, and a Turk, are reported to be among those killed.

The first strike took place at a compound in Shalam Raghzai in the Wana area of South Waziristan, according to The New York Times. The second strike hit a "suspected militant compound" in Wacha Dana, just seven miles outside of Wana. The third strike hit a vehicle in the village of Darnashtra in the Shawal area.

Eighteen people have been reported killed in the three strikes. No senior Taliban or al Qaeda leaders have been reported killed at this time, but a number of foreigners are said to be among those killed.

"Most of those killed in the drone strikes are said to be foreigners," a Pakistani intelligence official told The New York Times. "Their nationalities are described to be Arabs, Uzbeks and at least one Turk."

Seven "Punjabi Taliban" were said to have been killed in one of the strikes, according to Reuters. The term 'Punjabi Taliban' is used to describe al Qaeda-affiliated terrorists from Pakistani groups such as the Lashkar-e-Jhangvi, Lashkar-e-Taiba, Harkat-ul-Jihad-al-Islami, and Jaish-e-Mohammed. Many leaders and members of these terror groups are known to shelter in Pakistan's tribal areas.

Today's strikes are the first since the June 2 strike that is thought to have killed Ilyas Kashmiri, who leads al Qaeda military forces in the region and is one of three members of al Qaeda's external operations council, which is assigned to directing attacks against the US and Western allies. Kashmiri is one of the most hunted al Qaeda leaders in the Afghan-Pakistan border area. Ustadz Ahmed Farooq, the head of propaganda operations for al Qaeda in Pakistan, is also thought to be among those killed in the strike.

"Good Taliban" leader Mullah Nazir also an al Qaeda leader

Both the June 2 strike and today's attacks took place in areas controlled by Mullah Nazir, the leader of the Taliban in the Waziri tribal areas in South Waziristan. Nazir has openly supported Taliban emir Mullah Omar and al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden, and wages jihad in Afghanistan. In an interview with the Asia Times, Nazir rejected claims that he opposed al Qaeda, and affirmed that he considered himself to be a member of the global terror organization.

"Al Qaeda and the Taliban are one and the same," Nazir said. "At an operational level we might have different strategies, but at the policy level we are one and the same.... This is wrong that I am anti-al Qaeda. I am part of al Qaeda."

Pakistan's military and intelligence services consider Nazir and his followers "good Taliban" as they do not openly seek the overthrow of the Pakistani state.

In the summer of 2009, the military signed a peace agreement with Nazir stipulating that he would not shelter al Qaeda or members of the Movement of the Taliban in Pakistan, which were based in the Mehsud tribal areas of South Waziristan. The Pakistani government launched a military operation against the Movement of the Taliban in Pakistan in October 2009, but left Nazir's areas untouched. Nazir has continued to allow the Movement of the Taliban in Pakistan, al Qaeda, and other terror groups safe haven in his tribal areas.

Significantly, more senior al Qaeda leaders have been killed in Nazir's tribal areas during the US air campaign than in those of any other Taliban leader in Pakistan. Nazir also shelters the Mehsuds from the Movement of the Taliban in Pakistan, in violation of the peace agreement with the Pakistani government.

In the past, the US has killed several senior al Qaeda leaders in Nazir's territories. One of the most senior al Qaeda leaders killed was Midhat Mursi al Sayyid Umar, who is better known as Abu Khabab al Masri. Abu Khabab was killed along with four members of his staff in a Predator strike on July 28, 2008.

Two other top al Qaeda leaders killed while in Nazir's care were Osama al Kini (Fahid Mohammed Ally Msalam), al Qaeda's operations chief in Pakistan; and Sheikh Ahmed Salim Swedan, one of al Kini's senior aides. Both men were wanted by the US for their involvement in the 1998 suicide attacks on the US embassies in Kenya and Tanzania.

In another strike in Nazir's territory, US Predators also killed Abu Hazwa Jawfi, who is said to have led Jundallah, a Pakistani terror group that is based in Karachi and maintains close ties with al Qaeda.

The Predator strikes, by the numbers

The US has carried out four strikes this month. The US has also launched four strikes in South Waziristan since May 10, when the Predators killed four terrorists, including three "Arabs," in the town of Angoor Adda in South Waziristan.

The US has carried out 11 Predator strikes in Pakistan's tribal areas since US Navy SEALs and CIA operatives raided Osama bin Laden's safehouse in Abbottabad, far from Pakistan's tribal areas, on the early morning of May 2.

The US has carried out 32 strikes in Pakistan so far this year, and is well off the pace of the 2010 total of 117 attacks. In 2010, the US more than doubled the number of strikes that had occurred in 2009; by late August 2010, the US had exceeded 2009's strike total of 53 with a strike in Kurram. 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 - 2011.]

In 2010 the strikes were concentrated almost exclusively in North Waziristan, where the Afghan and Pakistani Taliban, the Haqqani Network, al Qaeda, and a host of Pakistani and Central and South Asian terror groups are based. All but 13 of the 117 strikes took place North Waziristan. Of the 13 strikes occurring outside of North Waziristan in 2010, seven were executed in South Waziristan, five were in Khyber, and one was in Kurram. That trend is largely holding true this year, but an increasing number of strikes are taking place in South Waziristan. So far in 2011, 23 of the 32 strikes have taken place in North Waziristan; the other nine strikes have occurred in South Waziristan.

Since Sept. 1, 2010, the US has conducted 92 strikes in Pakistan's tribal agencies. The bulk of those attacks have aimed at the terror groups in North Waziristan, with 74 strikes in the tribal agency. Many of the strikes have targeted cells run by the Islamic Jihad Group, which have been plotting to conduct Mumbai-styled terror assaults in Europe. A Sept. 8 strike killed an IJG commander known as Qureshi, who specialized in training Germans to conduct attacks in their home country.

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. The campaign has been largely successful in focusing on terrorist targets and avoiding civilian casualties, as recently affirmed by the Pakistani military.

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 - 2011.