US kills 4 in North Waziristan airstrike

The US has killed four Taliban and al Qaeda in its first strike in Pakistan’s tribal areas in two weeks.

Unmanned aircraft, likely remotely piloted Predator or Reaper aircraft, struck in Norak near the main town of Mir Ali in North Waziristan. The aircraft struck the home of Musharraf Gul, a local tribesman who shelters the Taliban.

Four people were reported killed and another four were reported wounded in the strike, but no senior commanders have been identified as being the targets.

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.

Today’s attack is only the first this month, and the ninth since the beginning of September. Eight of the nine strikes have taken place in North Waziristan; four have targeted Abu Kasha’s territories, and four have targeted the Haqqani Network.

The last strike, on Oct. 21, is thought to have killed Abu Musa al Masri, a senior bomb maker who has links with al Qaeda’s external network.

The attack takes place as the Pakistani military is on the offensive against Hakeemullah Mehsud’s faction of the Taliban in South Waziristan. The Pakistani Army cut a deal with Hafiz Gul Bahadar in North Waziristan and Mullah Nazir in South Waziristan. The military agreed to halt attacks against those Taliban factions and allow them to use the roads in exchange for a Taliban promise to allow military convoys to pass and maintain neutrality while the fighting is ongoing.

Today’s strike is also the second since the Pakistani military launched the offensive against Hakeemullah’s forces on Oct. 17.

The Pakistani government, in an effort to preserve the peace agreement with Nazir and Bahadar, has denied that US strikes occurred in the tribal areas. Instead, Pakistani officials have claimed that explosions at bomb factories were the cause of the deaths.

Background on US strikes against al Qaeda and Taliban networks in northwestern Pakistan

US intelligence believes that al Qaeda has reconstituted its external operations network in Pakistan’s lawless, Taliban-controlled tribal areas. This network is tasked with hitting targets in the West, India, and elsewhere. The US has struck at these external cells using unmanned Predator aircraft and other means in an effort to disrupt al Qaeda’s external network and decapitate the leadership. The US also has targeted al Qaeda-linked Taliban fighters operating in Afghanistan, particularly the notorious Haqqani Network.

As of the summer of 2008, al Qaeda and the Taliban operated 157 known training camps in the tribal areas and the Northwest Frontier Province. Al Qaeda has been training terrorists holding Western passports to conduct attacks, US intelligence officials have told The Long War Journal. Some of the camps are devoted to training the Taliban’s military arm; some train suicide bombers for attacks in Pakistan and Afghanistan; some focus on training the various Kashmiri terror groups; some train al Qaeda operatives for attacks in the West; some train the Lashkar al Zil, al Qaeda’s Shadow Army; and one serves as a training ground for the Black Guard, the elite bodyguard unit for Osama bin Laden, Ayman al Zawahiri, and other senior al Qaeda leaders.

There were 36 recorded cross-border attacks and attempts in Pakistan during 2008, according to numbers compiled by The Long War Journal. Twenty-nine of those attacks took place after Aug. 31. From 2004 through 2007, there were only 10 recorded strikes.

US attacks inside Pakistan during 2009:

• US kills 4 in North Waziristan airstrike

Nov. 4, 2009

• US airstrike targets al Qaeda in North Waziristan

Oct. 21, 2009

• US kills 4 in strike on Haqqani Network in North Waziristan

Oct. 14, 2009

• US strike kills Haqqani Network and foreign fighters in North Waziristan

Sept. 30, 2009

• US aircraft strike in North and South Waziristan

Sept. 29, 2009

• US airstrike targets Haqqani Network in North Waziristan