A bad day for al Qaeda in Karikot

Bill Roggio:

The US military started the New Year with an airstrike in Pakistan's Taliban-control tribal agency of South Waziristan.

An unmanned Predator strike aircraft launched Hellfire missiles at a vehicle and a hideout in the town of Karikot. Four people were killed and several were injured in missile strikes, Geo News reported. Several of those wounded are in critical condition. No senior Taliban or al Qaeda leaders have been reported killed in the attack.

All of those killed were "foreigners," a word used to describe al Qaeda operatives from outside of Pakistan. "It was a precision strike as there have been no civilian casualties," a Pakistani intelligence officer told Reuters. "All the dead and wounded were militants from Turkmenistan." Turkmen terrorists are typically affiliated with the al Qaeda affiliated Islamic Jihad Group, the Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan, or the East Turkistan Islamic Movement.

The town of Karikot is located in the tribal areas commanded by Mullah Nazir, a Taliban chieftain and rival of Pakistani Taliban leader Baitullah Mehsud. The last US airstrike inside of Pakistan in 2008 took place in Karikot and Shin Warsak near South Waziristan's main town of Wana.

The US targeted Nazir and Tahir Yuldashev, the leader of the Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan, in a strike near Wana on Nov. 7. Nazir was wounded in the attack. Yuldashev's status is still unknown.

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So is al Qaeda in Karikot because the US is there are because the US exist? Since the US is not there, but in Afghanistan, it must be the latter. And now a few al Qaeda fighters will be referred to henceforth as the latter.

Despite al Qaeda and Taliban efforts to disrupt our supply lines they are still under attack. We should ear in a day or which "martyrs" have met with Hellfire.