US hits al Qaeda safe house in North Waziristan

The US has targeted an al Qaeda safe house inside Pakistan’s tribal areas for the second day in a row. A missile strike hit a home near the town of Miramshah in the Taliban-controlled tribal agency of North Waziristan.

Six people were reported killed in the attack. A woman, a child, and several unidentified “foreigners” were among those killed in the attack. Eight were reported wounded.

The North Waziristan strike is the ninth confirmed cross-border strike by the US against al Qaeda and Taliban safe houses in the tribal areas this year, and the third such attack since Aug. 20. Only ten such strikes were recorded in 2006 and 2007 combined.

Four safe houses have been hit in North Waziristan, three have been hit in South Waziristan, and two have been targeted in Bajaur.

Yesterday the US hit an al Qaeda safe house outside of Wana in South Waziristan. Five were reported killed, including two Arab Canadians.

Three senior al Qaeda operatives have been killed in this year’s strikes.

Abu Khabab al Masri, al Qaeda’s bomb expert and WMD chief, was killed South Waziristan on July 28. Abu Sulayman Jazairi, al Qaeda’s external operations chief, was killed in Bajaur on May 14. Abu Laith al Libi, a senior commander in Afghanistan and the leader of the Libyan Islamic Fighting Group, was killed in North Waziristan on January 28.

Bill Roggio is a Senior Fellow at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies and the Editor of FDD's Long War Journal.

Tags:

14 Comments

  • Tommy says:

    Only 9 this year? I thought the number was closer to 20.
    We’re definitely stepping it up! I have a feeling there will be at least a dozen more strikes before the year is over.

  • DON JUICE says:

    THESE STRATEGIC STRIKES MEANS WE ARE GETTING RICH IN INTEL OVER THERE

  • WaitWhat says:

    http://thenews.jang.com.pk/top_story_detail.asp?Id=16953
    “Earlier, on Sunday morning, some militants in Miramshah village near Tochi River fired on a drone flying over their village. However, as usual they could not succeed in shooting it down.”
    While filing this report, tribal sources reported that another heavy explosion was heard in the area. “There is another heavy explosion heard right now. It seems to be another missile attack.

  • WaitWhat says:

    Where’s the traitor Adam “Gadahn Amerika”? He’s been awfully quiet all year.

  • Alex says:

    Well, since GovtPak doesn’t seem to be complaining, might as well.

  • JusCruzn says:

    Any time you kill hirabi’s it’s a good day. GOOD WORK TROOPS KEEP KILLING HIRABI’S!!!

  • Marlin says:

    This is the most specific information I can recall the Pakistani government ever releasing about their efforts (or lack thereof) to catch bin Laden/Zawahiri.

    Pakistani security forces missed a chance to catch al Qaeda second in command Ayman al Zawahri, the government’s senior Interior Ministry official said on Monday.
    […]
    Rehman Malik did not say when security forces had missed the chance to catch Zawahri or give any more detail about the incident. He also did not say where bin Laden might be.
    Malik told a news conference Zawahri was moving between Pakistan’s tribal areas and the eastern Afghan provinces of Kunar and Paktia.
    “We certainly had traced him at one place, but we missed the chance. So he’s moving in Mohmand and, of course, sometimes in Kunar, mostly in Kunar and Paktia,” he said.

    Reuters: Pakistan “missed chance” to catch al Qaeda deputy

  • Cass says:

    I just saw on PoliGazette HERE that Zawahiri’s wife was killed in a strike by security forces. They had the same info posted by Marlin, that he was moving back and forth over the borders. They pointed out that now he knows that he can be found and that he’s vulnerable.
    My question is, which security force strike got her, theirs or ours? Who is he going to get madder at now?
    Finally, some specific news out of Pakistan.

  • Tommy says:

    Mark my words….he’ll be dead by Xmas.

  • don juice says:

    i hope and pray u right tommy and hopefully we can get osama right along with him

  • JusCruzn says:

    We should never have let them escape at tora bora. A few chemical shells into all the caves along the ridges would have taken care of all the vermin. Had we done that there might be people alive today in places like Bali, Madrid, and London just to name a few. GOOD WORK TROOPS KEEP KILLING HIRABI”S!!!

  • Neo says:

    I’m sure that our special forces and Afghani allies would have appreciated chemical weapons wafting down the Tora Bora mountainsides while they were trying to engage Al Qaeda. Than there is the question of were we get the chemical weapons. If I recall, Nixon denounced the use of chemical weapons in 1969 and the manufacture of all of our existing stocks predated that decision. The only real reason we kept chemical weapons after that date was as a bargaining chip to get the Soviets to do likewise. Decades later the long since unstable stockpiles were finally incinerated.
    Dumb idea, quite frankly.

  • JusCruzn says:

    Never said exactly quite how the timing of it should go, or that we should do it when any friendly troops are in the area. There are also such things as chemical warfare suits too. Glad to see you taking that for granted Neo. Nixon may have denounced them but who really knows whether we still have any or not. Irregardless it didn’t stop us from teaching Saddam how to make them when he was fighting the Iranians. There are lots of options, just too bad we didn’t use any of them when we knew the general vicinity they were in, and had a good chance to eliminate them.

  • Hopefully they are closing in and stepping up operations, the progress seems to be good, lets hope it continues!

Iraq

Islamic state

Syria

Aqap

Al shabaab

Boko Haram

Isis