Posted on 04/08/2009 4:30:48 PM PDT by csvset
The US has struck yet again inside Pakistan. The latest attack was aimed at a target in the lawless, Taliban-controlled tribal agency of South Waziristan.
An unmanned Predator strike aircraft fired a Hellfire missile at a vehicle in a bazaar in the town of Gangi Khel near Wana. Four Taliban and al Qaeda operatives are thought to have been killed in the strike and four civilians are said to have been wounded, Geo News reported. No senior Taliban or al Qaeda leaders have been reported killed at this time.
The town of Gangi Khel is located in the tribal areas commanded by Mullah Nazir, a Taliban chieftain and former rival and now ally of Pakistani Taliban leader Baitullah Mehsud. The US targeted Nazir and Tahir Yuldashev, the leader of the Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan, in a strike near Wana on Nov. 7. Nazir was wounded in the attack. Yuldashev's status is still unknown, but it is believed he survived the attack.
The US targeted the Taliban in Gangi Khel at least one other time this year. A Jan. 23 Predator attack hit a Taliban compound in the town. Ten al Qaeda and Taliban fighters were reported killed in that attack.
Today’s strike is the third this month and the fourteenth inside Pakistan this year. The US targeted a Haqqani Network compound on April 4 and a Taliban camp in Arakzai on April 1.
The Pakistani government officially protests the Predator strikes but behind the scenes the government allows the attacks and the military passes some intelligence to US intelligence to target Taliban leaders.
Nazir is one of three senior Taliban leaders in new alliance against the West
Nazir joined forces with senior Taliban leaders Hafiz Gul Bahadar and Baitullah Mehsud to form the Council of United Mujahideen. In February of this year, the three leaders swore fealty to al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden and the overall Taliban leader Mullah Omar, and threatened to strike at the US and other countries.
The three leaders had pamphlets distributed throughout North and South Waziristan to announce the formation of the Council of United Mujahideen. The Taliban leaders have “united according to the wishes of Mujahideen leaders like Mullah Muhammad Omar and Sheikh Osama bin Laden.”
The pamphlets also said the Taliban alliance “supported Mullah Muhammad Omar and Osama bin Laden’s struggle” against the administrations of US President Barack Obama, Pakistani President Asif Ali Zardari, and Afghan President Hamid Karzai.
The new alliance further stated it was waging war “in an organized manner’” to “stop the infidels from carrying out acts of barbarism against innocent people” just as Omar and bin Laden were waging war against Pakistan, Afghanistan, and the US.
Nazir has close ties to al Qaeda and maintains safe houses and training camps for the terror group. Abu Khabab al Masri, al Qaeda's former weapons of mass destruction chief, was killed in a strike in Nazir's territory last summer.
Nazir recently granted an interview to As Sahab, al Qaeda's propaganda arm, where he blamed Pakistan for the Predator strikes and threatened to overrun the capital of Islamabad.
"All these attacks that have happened and are still happening are the work of Pakistan," Nazir said. "The day is not far when Islamabad will be in the hands of the mujahideen." Last December, Nazir began threatening the Pakistani government if the strikes did not stop.
I love it when they get these folks with no danger to our troops.
Interesting that they would take them out “in town”. One wonders if they were enroute to some planned operation and so we decided to take them out before they got someplace busier. With just that four killed and only four civilians wounded, there couldn’t have been many bystanders in the immediate vicinity. A hellfire makes a really, really big boom.
PESHAWAR (Agencies) - A suspected US missile strike killed four militants and wounded four other people in Wana Wednesday, security officials said.
“Drones initially flew over mountains around Gangi Khel, where the Taliban have some positions. There was some ground fire towards one of the drones and they left the area,” said one security official, on condition of anonymity.
Gangi Khel is a village around five kilometres west of Wana, the main town in the semi-autonomous South Waziristan district.
“Drones returned after some time and targeted a vehicle, which was parked near some shops. Four people were killed in the attack. Four others were wounded - they were either shopkeepers or local residents,” the official said.
Two security officials described the dead as militants, revising an initial death toll of two. It was not immediately clear whether any high-value targets were killed. Another security official had earlier said it was not known whether the target was a vehicle or a house.
Regarding the hit on Nazir, in that strike we killed his wife and two children and 2 other in-laws.
It’s great when they are used against terrorists far away.
I dread the day that they are used against patriots/enemies of the state here.
Whew!
See post #8 . Anything’s possible with ‘Boma in charge.
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