Posted on 01/13/2006 3:38:41 PM PST by John W
Jan. 13, 2006 Today, according to Pakistani military sources, U.S. aircraft attacked a compound known to be frequented by high level al Qaeda operatives. Pakistani officials tell ABC News that al Qaeda leader Dr. Ayman al-Zawahiri, Osama bin Laden's top lieutenant, may have been among them.
U.S. intelligence for the last few days indicated that Zawahiri might be in the location or about to arrive, although there is still no confirmation from U.S. officials that he was among the victims.
(Excerpt) Read more at abcnews.go.com ...
Best to be prepared to celebrate WOT successes! (even if they don't pan out)
I hope for every Warrior, those who are home and those that are still in the Desert...and those who have paid the price for freedom, that it is true.....
I HOPE THEY FIND ENOUGH OF HIM TO BURY HIM FACE DOWN AND LEAVE HIS RUMP STICKING OUT, SO THEY'LL HAVE A FEEDING TROUGH FOR THE CAMELS!
Amen.
With a pig for a bed buddy......
Buy a sparkling wine from elsewhere. Champagne, from the district of the same name, is overrated..
She is not taking it well.
Indeed they are. However, when CBS feels the need to trot out the old saw about poor villagers weeping, it gives me greater hope that our guys really did get the monster. CBS is trying to get out in front of the story with their evil Americans spin.
Yes..I love those Wounded Warriors..they are awesome...
It'd be great but I won't get my hopes up.
Unlucky Friday 13th.
Or alternately, just keep an eye on Katie Couric.
Next time she wears black, we can be pretty sure we got Zawahiri
:)
Yes, threatwatch.org has a Bill Roggio story about that.
His fiends can come by for "a quick cold one!"
Woohoooooooooooo!
Pakistanis Say 17 Killed in Airstrike
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Today: January 13, 2006 at 13:32:14 PST
DAMADOLA, Pakistan (AP) -
Weeping villagers dug through the rubble of homes destroyed Friday in a pre-dawn airstrike that doctors said killed at least 17 people in a remote Pakistani tribal area - the second deadly strike in a week near the Afghan border.
Sahibzada Haroon ur Rashid, a local lawmaker from a hard-line Islamic party, claimed it was a U.S. airstrike - opposite a region of Afghanistan where Islamic militants are active. But the U.S. military denied knowledge of the incident.
Residents of Damadola, a hillside hamlet about four miles inside northwestern Pakistan, said children and women were among the dead.
They recounted hearing aircraft flying overhead before bombs or missiles crashed through the Pashtun tribal village - blasts that were felt miles away.
Pakistan's army said only that it had received reports about "explosions" in the region and that an unknown number of people had died.
An Associated Press reporter who traveled to Damadola, about 125 miles southeast of Islamabad, counted at least 15 fresh graves of victims, buried quickly according to Islamic custom. Villagers said more than 30 people had died and others were wounded.
Mohammed Karim, a doctor from a hospital in the main town of Bajur - the tribal region where Damadola is located - said 17 or 18 people were killed and two others were treated for their wounds.
Three houses, hundreds of yards apart, were destroyed, with wreckage scattered in craters some 10 feet deep. Five women were weeping nearby, cursing the attackers. Dozens of others gathered to express condolences.
"My entire family was killed, and I don't know whom should I blame for it," said Sami Ullah, a 17-year old student, as he shifted debris from his ruined home with a hoe. "I only seek justice from God."
He said 24 of his family members were killed - among them his parents, four brothers, three sisters-in-law, three sisters and five nephews. He said his father, Bakht Pur, had been a laborer.
Digging through the cement rubble of his home, Shah Zaman, who lost two sons and a daughter, recounted hearing planes at about 2:40 a.m.
"I ran out and saw planes were dropping bombs," said Zaman, 40. "I saw my home being hit."
"I don't know who carried out this attack and why. We were needlessly attacked. We are law-abiding people. I think we were targeted wrongly," he said.
Militant groups like al-Qaida, the Taliban and the militia of renegade Afghan warlord Gulbuddin Hekmatyar are believed to be active in the border area, but Bajur itself is rarely troubled by violence.
In Kabul, U.S. military spokesman Lt. Mike Cody said he had no reports on Friday's attack.
The spokesman for Pakistan's army - which has tens of thousands of forces deployed along the Afghan border to hunt al-Qaida and Taliban militants - said it had reports of casualties in explosions in Bajur but no details. "This matter is still being investigated," said spokesman Maj. Gen. Shaukat Sultan.
In Afghanistan's eastern province of Kunar, which borders Bajur, deputy provincial governor Noor Mohammed denied that a rocket attack had been launched from inside Afghanistan.
"I have been in touch with all the security forces in Kunar and no one has heard about this," he said.
The attack was the latest in a series of apparent air or missile strikes on the Pakistan side of the border with Afghanistan, unexplained by authorities but widely suspected to have targeted terror suspects or Islamic militants.
Last Saturday, an attack on a cleric's home in North Waziristan, 125 miles southwest of Bajur, killed eight people. Local tribesmen claimed U.S. helicopters launched the attack and took away five tribesmen. Pakistan's government protested to the U.S. military in Afghanistan. The U.S. military denied it had bombed the area.
Last month, a senior al-Qaida suspect from Egypt, Hamza Rabia, was killed in North Waziristan. Pakistan denied residents' claims that he died in a U.S. missile strike.
Pakistan maintains a sensitive alliance with the United States in its war on terror, which is opposed by many in this Islamic nation of 150 million people. Pakistan says it does not allow Afghan or the 20,000 U.S. forces in Afghanistan to operate on its soil.
"Our people say Americans did it," Rashid said. "If it is true, then Pakistan should lodge a strong protest with the U.S. government for killing innocent people."
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Ping
How many times has this guy been dead?
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