From The Long War Journal:
US kills 4 'militants' in latest Predator strike in Pakistan
By Bill RoggioSeptember 27, 2010
US Predators or the more deadly Reapers struck for the third time in three days in Pakistan's Taliban-controlled tribal agency of North Waziristan.
Unmanned Predator or Reaper strike aircraft fired two missiles today at a known Taliban compound in the village of Khushali Toorikhel near Miramshah, the main town in North Waziristan. Four "militants" were reported killed in the airstrike.
“We can now confirm that four militants were killed when a US drone fired two missiles on a militant compound,” a senior Pakistani security official told AFP.
No senior al Qaeda or Taliban leaders have been reported killed in the strike, and the target has not been disclosed.
The village of Khushali Toorikhel is administered by Hafiz Gul Bahadar, the Taliban commander for North Waziristan. Bahadar struck a deal with the Pakistani government not to shelter Taliban fighters from Hakeemullah Mehsud's branch of the Taliban, which is based in South Waziristan. But Bahadar has repeatedly violated his pact with the Pakistani government.
The US has carried out one other strike in the village of Khushali Toorikhel, on April 26, 2010. In that attack, US strike aircraft fired three missiles at the compound owned by known "local rebel commander Haleem Khan," killing eight suspected militants who were thought to be from South Waziristan.
Bahadar's tribal areas hit hard in Predator attacks
The areas in North Waziristan controlled by Bahadar and by the al Qaeda-linked Haqqani Network have been hit especially hard by the US this year. In 2010 so far, 76 percent of the year's strikes have hit targets in territory controlled by Bahadar (36 strikes) or Haqqani (20 strikes). Eleven of the 20 strikes in Pakistan this month have hit targets in Bahadar's territory.
Bahadar provides shelter to top al Qaeda leaders as well as terrorists from numerous Pakistani and Central Asian terror groups. Several of al Qaeda's top commanders, including Mustafa Abu Yazid, the chief financial official and commander in Afghanistan, and Abdullah Said al Libi, the commander of al Qaeda's military, have been killed in Predator strikes in Bahadar's areas in the last year.
The Pakistani government and military refuse to take action against Bahadar as he is considered a "good Taliban" leader. Bahadar, like the Haqqanis, does not advocate attacks against the Pakistani state and is viewed as strategic depth against Indian influence in Afghanistan.
The Predator strikes, by the numbers
The pace of the strikes this month is unprecedented since the US began the air campaign in Pakistan in 2004. The 20 strikes this month is a record number. The previous high was 11 strikes in January 2010, after the Taliban and al Qaeda executed a successful suicide attack at Combat Outpost Chapman that targeted CIA personnel who were active in gathering intelligence for the Predator campaign in Pakistan. In the bombing at COP Chapman, seven CIA officials and a Jordanian intelligence officer were killed.
The US has carried out 74 attacks inside Pakistan this year, which is more than double the number of strikes in Pakistan just two years ago. The US exceeded last year's strike total of 53 with a strike in Kurram late last month. In 2008, the US carried out 36 strikes inside Pakistan. [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.]
All but eight of this year's 74 strikes have taken place in North Waziristan. Of the eight strikes that have occurred outside of North Waziristan, six took place in South Waziristan, one occurred in Khyber, and one took place in Kurram.
The US campaign in northwestern Pakistan has targeted top al Qaeda leaders, al Qaeda's external operations network, and Taliban leaders and fighters who threaten both the Afghan and Pakistani states as well as support al Qaeda's external operations. [For a list of al Qaeda and Taliban leaders killed in the US air campaign in Pakistan, see LWJ Special Report, Senior al Qaeda and Taliban leaders killed in US airstrikes in Pakistan, 2004 - 2010.]
Read more: http://www.longwarjournal.org/archives/2010/09/us_kills_4_militants.php#ixzz10nFnyBYS
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