Drone swarm hits up to 15 terrorist in Pakistan

Times:

US drones fired ten missiles, killing at least 15 suspected militants in Pakistan’s border region as relations between Washington and Islamabad hit a new low.

The raid in North Waziristan came amidst a renewed political turmoil in Pakistan triggered by a court ruling to re-open corruption cases against President Zardari, a key US ally in the battle against Islamic militants. Relations between the two countries are strained after Pakistan introduced security checks on US diplomatic vehicles and delayed visas for US officials and contractors.

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Bill Roggio says:

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... Five or six unmanned strike aircraft fired upwards of 10 Hellfires at Haqqani Network hideouts. According to Reuters, the strikes targeted "a cave complex, a compound and a vehicle."

According to Geo News, missiles were fired as people came to recover bodies from the attack site. Twelve insurgents were reported killed in the attack, Pakistani officials told Reuters. The Associated Press claimed 15 were killed in this second strike, including seven "foreigners," a term to describe Arab or other members of al Qaeda.

Zuhaib al Zahibi, a commander in al Qaeda's Shadow Army, or the Lashkar al Zil, was among seven Arab "foreigners" reported killed in the attack.

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Roggio has more on teh killing of the Shadow Army commander here.

It is very unusually to fire that many missiles in a strike, but the target appears to have been very high value and he was successfully killed. This type of swarm attack is an indication of how important the targets were.

The Haqqani network is primarily responsible for most Taliban operations in Afghanistan and knocking it out would certainly facilitate the counterinsurgency operations in Afghanistan.