The US killed seven “militants” in a drone strike today in Pakistan’s Taliban-infested tribal agency of South Waziristan. The CIA-operated, remotely piloted Predators or Reapers fired several missiles at a vehicle in the village of Shonkrai Narai in the Ladha area of South Waziristan, The Express Tribune reported. Seven jihadists were killed and two more were wounded in the strike.
The identities of those killed were not disclosed. The Taliban and other jihadist organizations such as al Qaeda that are known to operate in the Ladha area have not announced the deaths of any senior leaders, commanders, or operatives.
Ladha is a traditional base of support for the Mehsud branch of the Pakistani Taliban. The area is administered by Sajna Mehsud, who heads a splinter faction that broke away from the Movement of the Taliban in Pakistan (TTP) in May 2014 due to a leadership dispute. Sajna, who is said to support peace talks and has allied with North Waziristan Taliban commander Hafiz Gul Bahadar, formed the Movement of the Taliban in South Waziristan. The spokesman for the new Taliban faction accused its parent organization of being “un-Islamic.” [See LWJ report, Discord dissolves Pakistani Taliban coalition.]
The US added Sajna, who is also known as Khan Said, to the list of Specially Designated Global Terrorists in October 2014. His forces wage jihad in both Afghanistan and Pakistan.
Today’s strike is just the second recorded in Pakistan this month. On Sept. 1, the US killed five jihadists, including three Uzbeks, in a strike on a compound in North Waziristan.
The US has also targeted Taliban fighters just across the border in the district of Gomal in Afghanistan’s eastern province of Paktika. On Sept. 9, the US killed 15 fighters from the TTP in an airstrike.
Today’s drone strike in South Waziristan is the eleventh reported in Pakistan this year. Last year, the US launched 24 airstrikes inside Pakistan; 19 of them took place in North Waziristan, four in South Waziristan, and one in Kurram. The number of operations in Pakistan has decreased each year since the program’s peak in 2010, when 117 attacks were recorded by The Long War Journal. [For more information, see LWJ report, Charting the data for US airstrikes in Pakistan, 2004 – 2015.]
The Pakistani military claimed that South Waziristan has been secured after launching an offensive against the TTP in 2009. But the military did not target Taliban factions such as the Mullah Nazir Group, which shelters and supports the TTP and al Qaeda.
