US kills 4 in North Waziristan airstrike

The US killed four people in an airstrike in Pakistan’s Taliban-controlled tribal agency of North Waziristan.

The attack, carried out by unmanned Predator or Reaper attack aircraft, hit a Taliban safe house in the town of Machi Khel near Mir Ali in North Waziristan. Two Hellfire missiles were reported to have been launched in the airstrike.

“A US drone fired two missiles, which hit a compound of a local tribesman, Karim Khan, killing four people and injuring two others,” a senior Pakistani security official told AFP.

No senior al Qaeda or Taliban leaders were reported killed, and US officials contacted by The Long War Journal would not comment on the target of the strike.

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.

North Waziristan has become the focal point of the US air campaign in Pakistan. Since the Aug. 5 strike in South Waziristan that killed Baitullah Mehsud, the leader of Movement of the Taliban in Pakistan, 16 of the 20 reported airstrikes have taken place in North Waziristan, while the other four were in South Waziristan.

The US carried out six airstrikes inside Pakistan in December, after conducting just two in October and two more in November.

So far this year, the US has carried out 53 airstrikes inside Pakistan. In all of 2008, 36 strikes were carried out. Since the US ramped up cross-border attacks in August 2008, 16 senior al Qaeda and Taliban leaders have been killed.

Today’s attack is the first since the Haqqani Network conducted a suicide attack inside a CIA compound at Combat Outpost Chapman in Khost province, Afghanistan. Seven CIA employees, including the base commander, and a US civilian were killed in the attack. The suicide bomber is said to have been invited to the base. The CIA is said to recruit local Afghans and possibly Pakistanis to provide intelligence on al Qaeda and the Taliban on both sides of the border.

US airstrikes in Pakistan in 2009:

• US kills 4 in North Waziristan airstrike

Dec. 31, 2009

• US strike kills 4 terrorists in North Waziristan

Dec. 26, 2009

• US airstrike kills 8 Punjabi Taliban in North Waziristan

Dec. 18, 2009

• Al Qaeda Shadow Army commander killed in US strike [two airstrikes in North Waziristan]

Dec. 17, 2009

• US strike kills 4 al Qaeda, 2 Taliban in South Waziristan

Dec. 10, 2009

• US airstrike kills 3 in North Waziristan