US strike kills 4 terrorists in North Waziristan

The US killed four Islamist terrorists in the first airstrike in more than a week in Pakistan’s Taliban-controlled tribal agency of North Waziristan.

The strike, carried out by unmanned Predator or Reaper attack aircraft, hit a Taliban safe house in the Saidgai region in North Waziristan. Two Hellfire missiles were reported to have been launched in the airstrike.

Four “extremists” were killed in the attack and two more were wounded, according to a report in Geo News.

The Saidgai region in North Waziristan is under the control of Taliban commander Hafiz Gul Bahadar. The US has conducted two strikes in the town of Danda Saidgai since 2006.

The March, 1, 2006, attack in Danda Saidgai, one of the rare air assaults inside Pakistan by US special operations forces, targeted a training camp that housed hundreds of foreign fighters and served as a training center for the Black Guard, the specially trained bodyguards for Osama bin Laden, Ayman al Zawahiri, and other senior al Qaeda leaders.

Al Qaeda commander Imad Asad, the commander of the Black Guard camp, was killed along with scores of al Qaeda fighters in a special operations assault on a military complex which housed hundreds of foreign fighters and served as a training center.

The Pakistani military and government have refused US pressure to move against Bahadar and the Haqqani Network, which is also based in North Waziristan. Instead, the Pakistani military negotiated a ceasefire with Bahadar and his ally Mullah Nazir in South Waziristan that allows the military to move through their territories without being attacked as it operates against Hakeemullah Mehsud’s Taliban faction in South Waziristan.

The Haqqanis, Bahadar, and Nazir all shelter al Qaeda leaders and operatives, and their forces operate against NATO and Afghan forces in Afghanistan. Sirajuddin Haqqani, the military commander of the Haqqani Network, is close to al Qaeda and is thought to be a member of al Qaeda’s military council.

Today’s strike is the first since a flurry of attacks on Dec. 17-18, when airstrikes hit al Qaeda camps, safe houses, and commanders in North Waziristan. Zuhaib al Zahib, a commander in the Lashkar al Zil, al Qaeda’s Shadow Army, is thought to have been killed. Sheikh Saeed al Saudi, a brother-in-law of Osama bin Laden and a member of al Qaeda’s Shura Majlis, was the target of the strikes.

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, 15 of the 19 reported airstrikes have taken place in North Waziristan, while the other four were in South Waziristan.

So far this year, the US has carried out 51 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.

US airstrikes in Pakistan in 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

Dec. 8, 2009

• US airstrike kills 4 Taliban in North Waziristan