Posted on 03/17/2011 8:56:19 AM PDT by MissesBush
MIR ALI, Pakistan -- U.S. drone aircraft fired four missiles at a building in a militant sanctuary in northwestern Pakistan on Thursday, killing 38 people in an unusually deadly strike, Pakistani officials said.
A senior Pakistani intelligence official said the dead were militants meeting to discuss plans to send fighters to Afghanistan; the local governor said they were innocent tribal elders and police.
Masood Kausar, the governor of northwest Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province, condemned the strikes and said the families of the victims should receive compensation.
"We have criticized drone attacks before and we will continue to raise our voice to condemn these attacks," said Kausar.
The senior Pakistani security official denied the governor's accusations and said they were likely driven by Taliban propaganda. The militants claimed after the strikes that innocent tribesmen were killed, he said, speaking on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the issue.
The missiles hit a compound in the Datta Khel area of the North Waziristan tribal region -- the main sanctuary for al-Qaida and Taliban fighters along the Afghan border, said Pakistani intelligence officials, also speaking on condition of anonymity.
While it was unclear exactly how many militants were at the meeting, it appeared that almost all were killed or wounded, said the officials. A total of 38 people were killed and seven wounded, they said.
Sponsored Links The militants were allied with Hafiz Gul Bahadur, a powerful Pakistani Taliban commander in the area who has focused his efforts on fighting foreign troops in Afghanistan, said the officials.
The most senior militant killed in the attack was Sharabat Khan, Bahadur's top commander for the Datta Khel area, who was leading the meeting, said the officials. Several foreign militants were also killed, they said.
The United States began firing missiles at militant targets in Pakistan in 2004, but the pace of the attacks picked up dramatically in 2008. Last year, there were around 120 strikes, which are believed to be carried out by unmanned drone aircraft launched either from Afghanistan or from inside Pakistan. There have been around 20 so far this year.
Most of the strikes this year and last have been in North Waziristan.
Washington does not acknowledge firing the missiles and reporters are barred from visiting the area, meaning it is hard to verify who is being killed. Pakistani leaders formally protest the strikes, but its intelligence agencies are widely believed to cooperate in some of them.
You gotta love the informers constantly giving away the whereabouts of the jihadi cockroaches.
And thanks to President Bush for initiating this policy of Predator Strikes on the parasites, one copied by Obama along with much of Bush's other anti-terrorisst policies Obama and the DemoCrites opposed when they were out of power but now steal the credit for the success of.
Kudos to Obama for continuing this policy. One of the very few things he's gotten right.
Why risk the political and material cost on a gathering of innocuous speculators?
“Achmed, stop that whistling! You’re disturbing the class!”
“But Abdullah, the whistling isn’t coming from me, it’s coming fr-”
BOOM!!
from article
“Masood Kausar, the governor of northwest Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province, condemned the strikes and said the families of the victims should receive compensation.”
if we pay and I bet we will then we are stupid and the list killed will grow from 38 to 380
Awwww... dag-nabit! One of the most target rich environments in the world and we manage to hit the ONE building in the ENTIRE Provence that has anyone in it who's NOT a shaved ape.
What are the odds?
/sarc
“Circular error probable zero. Impact with high-order detonation. Have a nice day.”
REVISED HEAD LINE NOW READS: 38 Obama Voters for 2012 Election Murdered by US Military!
Payback for screwing with the CIA dude.
Hell, he's afraid to shoot at pirates for Gods sake.
ah so that’s how the rats seem to get all them dead voters!
the CIA was screwed up under Bush...all leftover crud from Clinton....
think Valery Plame....and her ilk...
it needs a top to bottom shake up once the boyking is gone....
This is the islamic jihadists S.O.P.
Isn’t obama a war criminal now? Last time I looked we haven’t declared war over there...
“in a militant sanctuary ... they were innocent tribal elders and police.”
Unless they were hostages (and I include children in that description), there’s no such thing as innocents in a militant sanctuary.
The governor is obviously lying anyway, since everyone knows we only target weddings.
Was it a "wedding party", or was it a "baby milk factory"?
He hasn’t f’d the policy up. That gets a ‘good doggie’ from me.
Of course he did. We paid blood money to get our CIA guy out and now they'll expect to win the lottery every time anything happens.
This is the one policy I've appreciated from Obama. Hopefully it continues. It was initiated by Bush, and all else Obama sucks at... but in this important endeavor, credit to where credit's due. At least it hasn't been stopped.
That said, I still despise Obama for a plethora of OTHER reasons.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.