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

The US has conducted the first unmanned airstrike in the lawless tribal agency of South Waziristan since the Pakistani Army launched an offensive there in mid-October.

The strike, carried out by unmanned Predator or Reaper attack aircraft, hit a Taliban “hideout” in Tanga in the Ladha region in South Waziristan. Ladha is one of several Taliban strongholds that were the target of the Pakistani Army’s offensive against the Mehsud branch of the Taliban in South Waziristan.

Four al Qaeda operatives and two Taliban fighters were killed in the attack, according to reports from the region. “Eyewitnesses said the toll could be mount,” Geo News reported. It is not known if senior al Qaeda or Taliban commanders were killed in the attack.

The Pakistani military denied that the US carried out an airstrike in Pakistan today, but US officials contacted by The Long War Journal confirmed the strike. The Pakistani military also denied that two other strikes carried out in October took place; these strikes were later confirmed, however.

“The Pakistani Army doesn’t want US interference in their operation in South Waziristan,” one offical told The Long War Journal. “Their [the Pakistanis’ operation in South Waziristan] is winding down and they haven’t achieved their goal: to kill or capture Hakeemullah Mehsud and Taliban’s leadership, and they don’t want to be one-upped by the US.”

The Pakistani military has claimed that 594 Taliban fighters and 80 soldiers have been killed during the South Waziristan operation (five Taliban fighters and a soldier were reported killed today), which targeted Hakeemullah’s forces in the Mehsud tribal areas. The military has ignored the Taliban under the leadership of Mullah Nazir as well as the Haqqanis and Hafiz Gul Bahadar in North Waziristan.

Al Qaeda fighters are known to have harbored in the Ladha region in South Waziristan. The US has conducted seven airstrikes in Ladha since 2008, two of which have killed dangerous al Qaeda and Taliban commanders.

Khalid Habib, the former commander of the Lashkar al Zil, or the Shadow Army, al Qaeda’s paramilitary forces in Pakistan’s northwest and Afghanistan, was among six Taliban and al Qaeda operatives killed in an airstrike on a safe house in the village of Sam in the Ladha region of South Waziristan on Oct. 16, 2008.

Also, Baitullah Mehsud, the former leader of the Movement of the Taliban, was killed in the Aug. 5 airstrike in Ladha.

Today’s airstrike is the second in three days, and the first in South Waziristan since Sept. 30. Two Arab al Qaeda operatives from Saudi Arabia were among three terrorists reported killed in the Dec. 8 strike in North Waziristan.

So far this year, the US has carried out 48 airstrikes inside Pakistan. In all of 2008, 36 strikes were carried out. Since the US ramped up cross-border attacks in 2008, 14 al Qaeda and Taliban leaders have been killed [see LWJ report, “US airstrikes alone cannot defeat al Qaeda“].

US airstrikes inside Pakistan have tapered off since September, which saw six attacks. There have been only two airstrikes in October, two in November, and two so far this December. No senior al Qaeda or Taliban commanders have been reported killed in those attacks.

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