Abu Saif, a Pakistani national, served as a cross-border facilitator and a conduit between senior al Qaeda leaders in Pakistan and Afghanistan, and was involved in media operations. Two other Pakistanis and a Saudi were also killed.
The strike took place in an area under the control of Taliban leader Hafiz Gul Bahadar, and is the first in a week.
Seven out of the last 10 drone strikes have taken place in the Shawal Valley, which is administered by “good Taliban” commander Hafiz Gul Bahadar.
The strike is the fourth in Pakistan in five days; all took place in North Waziristan in areas under the control of Hafiz Gul Bahadar.
The Shawal Valley has been the focus of recent drone strikes in Pakistan. The strikes in Pakistan have been on the decline the past three months; the US has launched only eight since June 4.
Mufti Assad, the emir for Kunar, and his deputy, Yusuf, were killed in the Aug. 3 airstrike in the Watahpur district. Both al Qaeda leaders were Pakistani citizens. Fatah Gul, an al Qaeda facilitator who ran training camps, was killed in a separate strike.
The strike took place in Mir Ali, a known terrorist haven where the Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan, and the Islamic Jihad Group, an IMU splinter group, are based.
The attack took place in the al Qaeda and Taliban-controlled Shawal Valley, and is the first in 16 days.
The Jamaat-ud-Dawa, a terrorist organization headed by Hafiz Saeed, played a leading role in today’s Defense of Pakistan Council march protesting the reopening of NATO’s supply lines into Afghanistan.
Today’s strike on a compound killed 17 “suspected militants” in the Datta Khel area, which is controlled by Hafiz Gul Bahadar, a top Taliban commander who shelters al Qaeda and other terror groups.
Taliban spokesman Ihsanullah Ihsan called the government’s closure of the supply lines an orchestrated “drama” and challenged the so-called Defense of Pakistan alliance to take action.
Eight “militants,” including members of the Turkistan Islamic Party, were killed in the latest airstrike in a Taliban and al Qaeda hub in Pakistan’s tribal agency of North Waziristan.
The strike took place in the Shawal Valley, a known haven for al Qaeda and the Taliban.
The strike is the second in 24 hours. The US has attacked targets in Miramshah’s bazaar four times since the beginning of March 2010; two top-level al Qaeda leaders were killed in those strikes.
The strike took place near Miramshah, the headquarters of the al Qaeda-linked Haqqani Network.
Movement of the Taliban in Pakistan emir Hakeemullah Mehsud and South Waziristan leader Waliur Rehman Mehsud are shown organizing the jailbreak.
Badr Mansoor led just one Pakistani “company,” and has been reported to have more than 2,000 fighters under his command. For the last three years, the US government has maintained that al Qaeda has only 300 to 400 operatives in Pakistan and that the network is on the verge of defeat.
The strike took place in the Shawal Valley in North Waziristan. Al Qaeda and the Movement of the Taliban in Pakistan have sheltered in the area in the past.
Farman Shinwari, like his predecessor, has close ties to the Harakat-ul-Mujahideen and the Movement of the Taliban in Pakistan.
The strike is the first in Pakistan in a month. Foreign fighters, likely Arabs and members of the Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan, were reported to have been targeted.
Among those freed is a former Pakistani Air Force member who was associated with Amjad Farooqi, the Pakistani jihadi who attempted to assassinate Pervez Musharraf at the behest of al Qaeda.
The drones leveled a compound near the bazaar in Miramshah. The strike is the first in more than two weeks.
Ustad Ahmad Farooq, al Qaeda’s spokesman for Pakistan, mentions Ilyas Kashmiri with Baitullah Mehsud, Ibn Amin, and Badr Mansour, who were all killed in drone strikes. “May Allah have mercy on all of them,” Farooq said.
Two commanders and six fighters loyal to Mullah Nazir, a favorite of the Pakistani establishment who has pledged his support for al Qaeda, were killed in the first strike. Seven other fighters were killed in the second strike.
Ustad Ahmad Farooq, al Qaeda’s spokesman for Pakistan, confirmed that Badr Mansoor was killed in a drone strike on Feb. 2012. Farooq accused the Pakistani military and government of supporting the US’s drone campaign.
Today’s strike is the first in Pakistan’s tribal areas in 14 days, and just the eighth this year.
The Abdullah Azzam Brigade claimed the attack and said it was carried out to avenge the death of Badr Mansoor, an al Qaeda and Taliban leader who was killed in a US drone strike on Feb. 9.
Seven terrorists are reported to have been killed in a village near Miramshah, and 12 more, including Uzbeks, were killed near Mir Ali.
Badr Mansoor used his links with the Taliban and Harakat-ul-Mujahideen to recruit leaders and fighters into al Qaeda. US intelligence officials said Mansoor is but a part of al Qaeda’s “deep bench” in Pakistan.
Pakistani officials claimed that Abu Zaid al Iraqi, al Qaeda’s financier in Pakistan, and “Punjabi” terrorists were killed in yesterday’s Predator strike in South Waziristan.