Enemy 'safe' house hit on Pakistan -Afghan border

AP/Houston Chronicle:

At least 20 people were killed in a missile strike near the Afghan border today, state-run Pakistan Television said.

The strike destroyed the house of a suspected militant leader, according to a local tribesman.

Seven missiles were fired in the strike in the tribal area of South Waziristan, the television report said.

The report did not indicate where the missiles came from, but U.S.-led coalition forces based in neighboring Afghanistan have launched attacks inside the Pakistani border in the past.

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That last paragraph is in error. The military forces in Afghanistan have not made any attacks in Pakistan. The CIA Predator drones have made several such attacks and this attack appears to be the work of more than one drone since they usually can carry no more than four Hellfire missiles a piece. Using seven on one house suggest it may have been a large target.

There has still been no word on who was targeted in the last such raid, but one a few weeks before killed al Qaeda's number three man al-Libi. Al Qaeda and the Taliban appear to have adopted a new operational security in not allowing the web sites to name their deceased operatives. That will be harder to do if it is part of the leadership. It is unlikely that the CIA will make any announcements before they do. What seems clear is that the CIA is getting better intelligence inside Pakistan. It is probably from human sources instead of the signal intel of the NSA.

AFP reports that "Foreigners linked with Taliban and Al-Qaeda militants were believed to be staying at the compound in Doog village...."

Reuters reports that nine were killed and nine injured in the attack.

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Three foreigners, an Arab and two Turkmen, were among those killed, according to the intelligence official.

Villagers put the death toll at 18.

"Except the boundary walls, the house has been destroyed," said a senior district government official who declined to be identified.

"The place has been used for some time as a militant hideout," he said.

The attack came a day after a Turkish woman was killed and five Americans were among 11 people wounded in a bomb attack at a restaurant popular with foreigners in the capital, Islamabad.

A spokesman for Pakistani Taliban militants claimed responsibility for the Islamabad bomb, the latest in a surge of attacks that began in July after troops stormed a radical mosque complex in Islamabad.

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The inconsistency in the casualty report is a function of relying on varying witnesses with imperfect knowledge. It is why US commanders generally say the first reports of military action are usually wrong. It doesn't help that the smart survivors are ducking their heads out of danger at the time of the action.

The article fails to note the irony of the targets in Islamabad and in Doog village. In Doog enemy combatants are targeted and in Islamabad noncombatants are targeted. The immorality of the enemy targeting is rarely made an issue, but it should be. Freedom fighters don't deliberately target non combatants, but terrorist do because they want to create terror in hopes that people will shrink from resisting the will of the terrorist.

Some might suggest there is equivalence because non combatants might be killed in an attack like that at Doog village, but they are never the intended targets in these attacks and are usually the result of an enemy who employs human shields in order to create a victim offensive. What the enemy does is a war crime in both instances and should be described as such.