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US Missiles Strike Pakistani Building, Killing 38 Militants
AOL News ^ | 03/17/11 | Rasool Dawar

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.


TOPICS: Breaking News; Foreign Affairs; Government
KEYWORDS: pakistan; predatordrones; wot
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I love the smell of burning terrorist in the morning...

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.

1 posted on 03/17/2011 8:56:24 AM PDT by MissesBush
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To: MissesBush
Pictures?

Kudos to Obama for continuing this policy. One of the very few things he's gotten right.

2 posted on 03/17/2011 8:58:17 AM PDT by skeeter
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To: MissesBush

Why risk the political and material cost on a gathering of innocuous speculators?


3 posted on 03/17/2011 9:00:23 AM PDT by Gene Eric (*** Jesus ***)
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To: MissesBush

“Achmed, stop that whistling! You’re disturbing the class!”

“But Abdullah, the whistling isn’t coming from me, it’s coming fr-”

BOOM!!


4 posted on 03/17/2011 9:03:37 AM PDT by reagan_fanatic (A communist is just a liberal in a hurry)
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To: MissesBush

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


5 posted on 03/17/2011 9:07:49 AM PDT by RWGinger
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To: MissesBush
the local governor said they were innocent tribal elders and police.

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

6 posted on 03/17/2011 9:07:49 AM PDT by End Times Sentinel (In Memory of my Dear Friend Henry Lee II)
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To: MissesBush

“Circular error probable zero. Impact with high-order detonation. Have a nice day.”


7 posted on 03/17/2011 9:08:12 AM PDT by NonValueAdded (Palin 2012: don't retreat, just restock [chg'd to comply w/ The Civility in Discourse Act of 2011])
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To: MissesBush

REVISED HEAD LINE NOW READS: 38 Obama Voters for 2012 Election Murdered by US Military!


8 posted on 03/17/2011 9:11:06 AM PDT by RetiredArmy (The Lord Said It and I Believe it. Read your Bible. These are the end time events.)
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To: MissesBush

Payback for screwing with the CIA dude.


9 posted on 03/17/2011 9:12:04 AM PDT by Concho (-)
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To: skeeter
Kudos to Obama? What makes you think HE ordered it?

Hell, he's afraid to shoot at pirates for Gods sake.

10 posted on 03/17/2011 9:16:48 AM PDT by unixfox (Abolish Slavery, Repeal The 16th Amendment!)
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To: RetiredArmy

ah so that’s how the rats seem to get all them dead voters!


11 posted on 03/17/2011 9:16:48 AM PDT by UKrepublican
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To: Concho

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....


12 posted on 03/17/2011 9:18:51 AM PDT by Vaquero ("an armed society is a polite society" Robert A. Heinlein)
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To: MissesBush
"Several foreign militants were also killed, they said"

This is the islamic jihadists S.O.P.

13 posted on 03/17/2011 9:20:10 AM PDT by gitmogrunt
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To: RetiredArmy

Isn’t obama a war criminal now? Last time I looked we haven’t declared war over there...


14 posted on 03/17/2011 9:20:40 AM PDT by refermech
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To: MissesBush

“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.


15 posted on 03/17/2011 9:26:26 AM PDT by Darth Reardon (No offense to drunken sailors)
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To: MissesBush
the local governor said they were innocent tribal elders and police.

Was it a "wedding party", or was it a "baby milk factory"?

16 posted on 03/17/2011 9:30:01 AM PDT by The Electrician ("Government is the only enterprise in the world which expands in size when its failures increase.")
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To: unixfox

He hasn’t f’d the policy up. That gets a ‘good doggie’ from me.


17 posted on 03/17/2011 9:40:18 AM PDT by skeeter
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To: Concho
"Masood Kausar, the governor of northwest Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province, condemned the strikes and said the families of the victims should receive compensation."

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.

18 posted on 03/17/2011 9:44:32 AM PDT by Abathar (Proudly posting without reading the article carefully since 2004)
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To: MissesBush
....a Pakistani intelligence official said the dead were militants ;
...the local governor said they were innocent tribal elders and ...


I swear it was tribal Elders and innocent children's




19 posted on 03/17/2011 9:51:08 AM PDT by Koracan
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To: skeeter
Kudos to Obama for continuing this policy.

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.

20 posted on 03/17/2011 10:06:12 AM PDT by ScottinVA (Not one drop of American blood for muslims in Libya or anywhere else!!!!)
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