Bingo. U.S. predator drones this morning struck in the Datta Khel area of North Waziristan, Pakistan today killing four jihadis - could be Taliban, could be al Qaeda....doesn't matter.
From the report at The Long War Journal:
Today, US Predators launched another airstrike in Pakistan's Taliban-controlled tribal agency of North Waziristan, killing four "local militants" in an area known to host al Qaeda's top leaders.
The strike took place in the Datta Khel area, a command and control center for al Qaeda and allied terror groups. The unmanned Predators or the more deadly Reapers fired two missiles at a vehicle as it pulled up to a compound in the Datta Khel area.
A Pakistani intelligence official said of those killed in the strike were "local militants," but did not identify which group they belonged to. "Preliminary reports said all of them were local militants but we are trying to get more information," the official told AFP.
No senior al Qaeda, Taliban, or other terrorist leaders have been reported killed in today's strike.
The target of today's attack is not clear. The US targets senior al Qaeda leaders, al Qaeda's external operations networks, and the mishmash of terrorist groups, including the Taliban and the Haqqani Network, that carry out attacks in Afghanistan.
Today's strike is the fourth in Datta Khel this year. The US has carried out seven strikes in Pakistan's tribal areas in this year, all took place in North Waziristan.
Unfortunately, the predator drone strikes in NW Pakistan, since the beginning of the year, have been more infrequent than we saw in the last part of the year in 2010. I'm not sure if that is on purpose or if the Taliban/al Qaeda are simply not moving around like they've done before - being wary of the new threat overhead.
But it does appear that the CIA has ignored the Taliban threats if more predator strikes were carried out - course, why would anyone heed a Taliban threat of more violence when they simply do that without any provocation?
US Predators strike again in al Qaeda haven of Datta Khel
Today, US Predators launched another airstrike in Pakistan's Taliban-controlled tribal agency of North Waziristan, killing four "local militants" in an area known to host al Qaeda's top leaders.
The strike took place in the Datta Khel area, a command and control center for al Qaeda and allied terror groups. The unmanned Predators or the more deadly Reapers fired two missiles at a vehicle as it pulled up to a compound in the Datta Khel area.
A Pakistani intelligence official said of those killed in the strike were "local militants," but did not identify which group they belonged to. "Preliminary reports said all of them were local militants but we are trying to get more information," the official told AFP.
No senior al Qaeda, Taliban, or other terrorist leaders have been reported killed in today's strike.
The target of today's attack is not clear. The US targets senior al Qaeda leaders, al Qaeda's external operations networks, and the mishmash of terrorist groups, including the Taliban and the Haqqani Network, that carry out attacks in Afghanistan.
Today's strike is the fourth in Datta Khel this year. The US has carried out seven strikes in Pakistan's tribal areas in this year, all took place in North Waziristan.
The strikes have been controversial in Pakistan. Earlier this week, more than 2,000 Pakistan 'tribesmen' protested the strikes in Miramshah, the main town in North Waziristan. The Taliban are suspected of organizing the protest, as an estimated "150 armed Taliban militants" stood watch over the protest, The Associated Press reported. The Taliban and the Haqqani Network exercise control over North Waziristan, and a protest could not be organized and executed without their consent.
Also in North Waziristan, Colonel Imam, one of the the so-called "fathers of the Taliban," was reported by Dawn to have been killed. Imam and another Inter-Services Intelligence official named Khalid Khawaja, were captured last year by a group that calls itself the "Asian Tigers," which in reality is a front for the Pakistani Taliban.
Khawaja was executed by the Taliban in May 2010, on the orders of Pakistani journalist Hamid Mir, according to a leaked phone transcript. Mir has denied the charge, however. Khawaja was found near the town of Mir Ali in North Waziristan, with a note pinned on him saying he spied for the CIA and the ISI.
Background on al Qaeda in the Datta Khel area
The Datta Khel area is administered by Hafiz Gul Bahadar, the Taliban commander for North Waziristan. Bahadar provides shelter to top al Qaeda leaders as well as terrorists from numerous Pakistani and Central Asian terror groups.
Datta Khel is a known hub of Taliban, Haqqani Network, and al Qaeda activity. While Bahadar administers the region, the Haqqani Network, al Qaeda, and allied Central Asian jihadi groups are also based in the area. The Lashkar al Zil, or al Qaeda's Shadow Army, is known to have a command center in Datta Khel.
Datta Khel serves as a command and control center for al Qaeda's top leaders, and some of them have been targeted and killed there. A strike in Datta Khel on Dec. 17, 2009, targeted Sheikh Saeed al Saudi, Osama bin Laden's brother-in-law and a member of al Qaeda's Shura Majlis, or executive council. Al Saudi is thought to have survived the strike, but Abdullah Said al Libi, the commander of the Shadow Army or Lashkar al Zil, and Zuhaib al Zahibi, a general in the Shadow Army, were both killed in the attack.
But the most significant attack in Datta Khel took place on May 21, 2010, which resulted in the death of Mustafa Abu Yazid, a longtime al Qaeda leader and close confidant of Osama bin Laden and Ayman al Zawahiri.
Yazid served as the leader of al Qaeda in Afghanistan and the wider Khorasan, a region that encompasses portions of Pakistan, Iran, and several Central Asian states. More importantly, Yazid was as al Qaeda's top financier, which put him in charge of the terror group's purse strings. He served on al Qaeda's Shura Majlis, or top decision-making council. Yazid also was closely allied with the Taliban and advocated the program of embedding small al Qaeda teams with Taliban forces in Afghanistan.
Despite the known presence of al Qaeda and other foreign terrorist organizations 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, the other major Taliban group based there. Bahadar and the Haqqanis are considered "good Taliban" by the Pakistani military establishment as they do not carry out attacks inside Pakistan. Yet Bahadar, the Haqqanis, and other Taliban groups openly carry out attacks in Afghanistan.
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