Saturday, June 26, 2010

U.S. Predator Strike Kills Two In North Waziristan

From The Long War Journal:


US airstrike kills 2 in North Waziristan

By Bill RoggioJune 26, 2010





Unmanned US strike aircraft killed two "militants" in an attack earlier today on a compound in the Taliban-controlled tribal agency of North Waziristan in Pakistan. A Predator or the more deadly Reaper fired a missile at a Taliban safe house in the Mir Ali area, killing 2 terrorists and wounding three more.



"It was a US drone strike," a local intelligence official in nearby Miramshah told Geo News. "The drone fired one missile on a house and the house was completely destroyed."



The town of Mir Ali is a known stronghold of al Qaeda leader Abu Kasha al Iraqi, an Iraqi national who is also known as Abu Akash. He has close links to the Taliban and the Haqqani Network. The Haqqani Network and Hafiz Gul Bahadar also have influence in the Mir Ali region.



Abu Kasha serves as the key link between al Qaeda's Shura Majlis, or executive council, and the Taliban. His responsibilities have expanded to assisting in facilitating al Qaeda's external operations against the West.



Background on US strikes in Pakistan



Today's strike is the fifth reported inside Pakistan this month. Three of the four prior strikes took place over the course of 24 hours on June 10-11. The first strike, on June 10, killed two low-level Arab al Qaeda military commanders and a Turkish foreign fighter.



A US attack on June 19 in Mir Ali killed an al Qaeda commander named Abu Ahmed, 11 members of the Islamic Jihad Group, and four Taliban fighters.



So far this year, the US has carried out 43 strikes in Pakistan; all but two of them have taken place in North Waziristan. The US is well on its way to exceeding last year’s strike total in Pakistan. In 2009, the US carried out 53 strikes in Pakistan; and in 2008, the US carried out 36 strikes in the country. [For up-to-date charts on the US air campaign in Pakistan, see LWJ Special Report, "Charting the data for US airstrikes in Pakistan, 2004 - 2010."]



Over the past several months, unmanned US Predator and Reaper strike aircraft have been pounding Taliban and al Qaeda hideouts in North Waziristan, and have also struck at targets in South Waziristan and Khyber, in an effort to kill senior terror leaders and disrupt the networks that threaten Pakistan, Afghanistan, and the West. [For more information, see LWJ report, "Senior al Qaeda and Taliban leaders killed in US airstrikes in Pakistan, 2004 - 2010."]



In early April, a top terrorist leader claimed that the US program had been crippled. Siraj Haqqani, the leader of the al Qaeda-linked Haqqani Network, said that the effectiveness of US airstrikes in killing senior Taliban and al Qaeda leaders had “decreased 90 percent" since the Dec. 30, 2009, suicide attack on Combat Outpost Chapman in Khost, Afghanistan, that killed seven CIA employees and a Jordanian intelligence officer. While other factors may be involved in the decreased effectiveness in killing the top-tier leaders, an analysis of the data shows that only three top-tier commanders have been killed since Jan 1, 2010, but seven top-tier leaders were killed between Aug. 1, 2009, and Dec. 31, 2009. [See LWJ report, "Effectiveness of US strikes in Pakistan 'decreased 90 percent' since suicide strike on CIA - Siraj Haqqani," for more information.]



But the US scored its biggest success in the air campaign in Pakistan last month. On May 21, a US strike in North Waziristan killed Mustafa Abu Yazid, one of al Qaeda's top leaders, and the most senior al Qaeda leader to have been killed in the US air campaign in Pakistan to date.



Yazid served as the leader of al Qaeda in Afghanistan and the wider Khorasan, and more importantly, as al Qaeda's top financier, which put him in charge of the terror group's purse strings. He served on al Qaeda's Shura Majlis, or top decision-making council. Yazid also was closely allied with the Taliban and advocated the program of embedding small al Qaeda teams with Taliban forces in Afghanistan.



Pakistani and US officials believed that one of the top Taliban leaders in Pakistan was killed in a strike this year. Up until May 2, most US and Pakistani officials believed that Hakeemullah Mehsud, the leader of the Movement of the Taliban in Pakistan, had been killed in a Jan. 14 strike in Pasalkot in North Waziristan. The CIA had been furiously hunting Hakeemullah after he appeared on a videotape with the suicide bomber who carried out the attack on Combat Outpost Chapman.



But after four months of silence on the subject, the Taliban released two tapes to prove that Hakeemullah is alive. On both of the tapes, Hakeemullah said the Taliban will carry out attacks inside the US. The tapes were released within 24 hours of an attempted car bombing in New York City by Faisal Shahzad, who was trained by the Taliban in North Waziristan. Hakeemullah's tapes were released along with another by his deputy, Qari Hussain Mehsud, who claimed responsibility for the attempted bombing in New York City.



US strikes in Pakistan in 2010:



• US airstrike kills 2 in North Waziristan

June 26, 2010

• US strike kills 16 in North Waziristan

June 19, 2010

• US kills 14 in 2 strikes in North Waziristan

June 11, 2010

• US Predator strike kills 3 in North Waziristan

June 10, 2010

• US kills 11 in Predator strike in South Waziristan

May 28, 2010

• US airstrike kills 6 in North Waziristan

May 21, 2010

• US Predators carry out first strike in Khyber

May 15, 2010

• US pounds Taliban in pair of strikes in North Waziristan

May 11, 2010

• US airstrike kills 10 'rebels' in North Waziristan

May 9, 2010

• US airstrike kills 4 'militants' in North Waziristan

May 3, 2010

• US strike kills 8 Taliban in North Waziristan

April 26, 2010

• US airstrike kills 7 Taliban in North Waziristan

April 24, 2010

• US strikes kill 6 in North Waziristan

April 16, 2010

• US strike kills 4 in Taliban stronghold of North Waziristan

April 14, 2010

• US strike kills 5 Taliban in North Waziristan

April 12, 2010

• US strikes kill 6 in North Waziristan

March 30, 2010

• US strike kills 4 in North Waziristan

March 27, 2010

• US kills 6 in strike against Haqqani Network

March 23, 2010

• US strike kills 4 in North Waziristan

March 21, 2010

• US kills 8 terrorists in 2 new airstrikes in North Waziristan

March 17, 2010

• US Predator strike in North Waziristan kills 11 Taliban, al Qaeda

March 16, 2010

• US airstrike kills 12 in North Waziristan

March 10, 2010

• US airstrike in North Waziristan kills 5 Taliban fighters

March 8, 2010

• US hits Haqqani Network in North Waziristan, kills 8

Feb. 24, 2010

• US airstrikes target Haqqani Network in North Waziristan

Feb. 18, 2010

• Latest US airstrike kills 3 in North Waziristan

Feb. 17, 2010

• US strike kills 4 in North Waziristan

Feb. 15, 2010

• US strikes training camp in North Waziristan

Feb. 14, 2010

• Predators pound terrorist camp in North Waziristan

Feb. 2, 2010

• US airstrike targets Haqqani Network in North Waziristan

Jan. 29, 2010

• US airstrike in North Waziristan kills 6

Jan. 19, 2010

• Latest US airstrike in Pakistan kills 20

Jan. 17, 2010

• US strikes kill 11 in North Waziristan

Jan. 15, 2010

• US airstrike hits Taliban camp in North Waziristan

Jan. 14, 2010

• US airstrike kills 4 Taliban fighters in North Waziristan

Jan. 9, 2010

• US airstrike kills 5 in North Waziristan

Jan. 8, 2010

• US kills 17 in latest North Waziristan strike

Jan. 6, 2010

• US airstrike kills 2 Taliban fighters in Mir Ali in Pakistan

Jan. 3, 2010

• US kills 3 Taliban in second strike in North Waziristan

Jan. 1, 2010











Read more: http://www.longwarjournal.org/archives/2010/06/us_airstrike_kills_2_1.php#ixzz0s1AJOa5b

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