Hellfire strike hits Taliban in South Waziristan

NY Times:

At least 13 people have been killed and several injured in a suspected American drone attack Thursday against the camp of a local Taliban commander in South Waziristan, a Pakistani intelligence official based in the area said.

The drone fired a total of four missiles into a compound in the village of Raghzai near Wana, the capital of South Waziristan, that was being used as a base by the Taliban commander, Wali Mohammed, local residents and officials said.

Mr. Mohammed, who is better known by his nom de guerre, Malang Wazir, was not in the compound and survived the attack, a fighter loyal to Mr. Mohammed said in a telephone interview. The intelligence official, who like the fighter, spoke on condition of anonymity, said a nephew of Mr. Mohammed died in the attack.

According to residents, one person died in an initial double missile strike on the compound. When people rushed to the scene to rescue the wounded, two more missiles were fired. Eight more people were killed in the secondary strike, they said. The intelligence official said that four more people died later.

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Mr. Mohammed, the commander who survived Thursday’s suspected attack, was a member of the local Taliban consultative body that wields de facto control over the town of Wana, under the city’s top Taliban commander, Molvi Nazir.

In recent months, as the strikes against the Taliban in the area intensified, Mr. Nazir and his fighters entered into a mutual security agreement with Baitullah Mehsud, the powerful Taliban commander who controls much of South Waziristan, local residents said. Mr. Mehsud is responsible for dozens of suicide bombings and is a key target in the Pakistani government’s widening offensive against Taliban militants in the country.

The pilotless drones had been flying over the Wana area since Wednesday, and were in the air at the time of the attack, local residents said. As a result, the Taliban had mostly vacated their bases and training camps, leaving only a few people in the compound when the strike occurred.

A Pakistani government official reached in Wana said Thursday the Taliban had cordoned off the area where the strike occurred, and that they were still recovering dead bodies from the debris.

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It is interesting that the Taliban operations are effected by just spotting the UAVs. Where do they go when they vacate their bases and training camps? Do they just go home or do they have other hiding places? It is a matter that should be of interest to the CIA officers coordinating these attacks. CNN gave a much lower death toll on what appears to be a story about the same attack.

Despite missing the commander that was probably the main target for this attack, it will still disrupt the operations of his group and send a message to his buddy Mehsud who is largely responsible for many of the human bomb attacks in Pakistan. These attacks also make it more difficult for their Afghan partners to find sanctuary in Waziristan.