Airstrike by U.S. Draws Protests From Pakistanis [Good info inside...]

New York Times ^ | 1/14/06 | Carlotta Gall

[saquin]

Local officials in the Bajaur district, where the airstrike happened, said 18 civilians had been killed in the attack, including six children. But the senior Pakistani official who spoke of Mr. Zawahiri suggested that the death toll was higher, and he said that at least 11 militants had been killed in the attack. Seven of the dead were Arab fighters, and another four were Pakistani militants from Punjab Province, said the official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to brief the news media.

[...]

On Saturday, the Pakistani security official described some of the intelligence surrounding the airstrike. He said that a dinner at which Mr. Zawahiri was expected had been planned for Thursday night. A local cleric, Maulavi Liaqat, was at the dinner, but he left around midnight, the official said.

After the airstrike, Mr. Liaqat was again at the scene, and he had the bodies of the Arab militants pulled from the rubble and taken away, the security official said. A second cleric, Maulavi Atta Muhammad, took away the Pakistani militants, he said.

A second American official who acknowledged that Mr. Zawahiri had been the target of the strike said it was probably too soon to know for certain whether he had been at the scene.

Damadola has been the focus of previous security operations as well. The Pakistani authorities carried out an operation in the village in April 2004 against a cleric, Maulavi Faqir Mohammad, whom they blamed for giving sanctuary to militants. The maulavi has been at large since, but turned up on Friday and spoke at the funeral of the civilian dead, denouncing the strike, local residents said. He left the area immediately afterward.

[blastdad51]

My UXO expert thinks it's most likely a Russian 152mm round. Say's you can't ID positive unless you can examine more closely. She says she bets it is Russian because of the sheer volume of stuff they found in Afghanistan in 02 ( Just a short air strike from Paki..) Looks like it's also been fired from the rifleing marks in the brass ring, with the fuse in place all those people are in jepordy of becoming DNA samples without notice.

[Ouderkirk]

We are sorry about the collateral damage.

I'm not. They are openly aiding and abetting terrorists.

That's the chance you take hanging out with such characters. Judge a man by the company he keeps.

[EricT.]

Uh, yeah, sure.

Nobody should believe any reports from "local officials" in Islamic countries. I've heard of too many "wedding parties" and "baby milk factories" to take anything that they say as fact. Do you remember the Jenin "massacre"?

[EricT.]

I have no doubt that you care little about anything not revolving directly around EricT.

You go ahead and think whatever makes it easier for you maintain your indignancy.

[Mr.Atos]

Doesn't this photo look funny for a number of other reasons? I'd like to know if any other graphic design enthusiasts/professionals see it too? Check out my post on this subject, and see for yourself.

Faked Up Photo Facts…

I'd certainly like to get a full resolution image of this photo from AFP or Getty to take a closer look.

[Boston Republican]

It's a fair point re: Hitler, but I don't think it's exactly 100% the same. The specific target of the WOT when it begain in 2001 was the targeting and elimination of Al Qaeda's leadership. Zawahiri and Bin Laden have to be considered the primary targets, but they escaped and (perhaps) continue to function in an operational manner. There were great successes, to be sure, most notably the disruption of the Afghan terror camps and the capture of Khalid Sheikh Amin. But I don't think FDR ever went on TV and said "I want Hitler, dead or alive," the way Bush did with Osama. Fair point, at least?

Look, I'm not knocking the war on terror, which I support and which I think has done tremendous good. It's just that when I see Zawahiri and Bin Laden in those tapes and think about how they're still alive I get almost irrationally angry. Even the thought of Bin Laden dying of natural causes makes me cranky.

[M35A2]

These observations notwithstanding (which seem valid to me), it bears a striking resemblance to the M804 training shell I have in my garage.
The US uses blue for training shells, although that may not be true elsewhere. If it is an American shell, it was most likely a faked image as the US wouldn’t waste a training shell when we could use a live one.
See some examples on the US Army’s page:
https://picac2cs9.pica.army.mil/ConventionalAmmo/ProductInformation/ArtilleryAmmo.aspx