US Drone strikes in Pakistan are illegal under international law.

[RabzonKhan]

At least nine killed in US drone attack in North Waziristan

Ali Akbar — Published about 8 hours ago
6/6/2015

PESHAWAR: At least nine suspected militants were killed in a US drone strike in the remote Shawal Valley in Pakistan's North Waziristan tribal region on Saturday.

According to sources, the drones targeted a house in Shawal's Zoya Saidgai area, which is said to be a hideout of the Afghan Taliban.

The drones fired two missiles, killing at least nine militants, sources said, adding that all killed in the incident were associated with the Afghan Taliban.

The area is generally off-limits to journalists, making it difficult to independently verify the number and identity of the dead.

North Waziristan is among Pakistan’s seven tribal districts near the Afghan border which are rife with insurgents and have been strongholds of Taliban and Al Qaeda operatives, among others.

Military in June last year launched an all-out operation named 'Zarb-i-Azb' against Taliban militants in the region, following which parts of the tribal agency was declared cleared of militants.

 

[TruthSeeker]

Islamic State’s spokesman for Khorasan province thought killed in US airstrike
BY BILL ROGGIO | July 9, 2015 | billroggio@longwarjournal.org | @billroggio


Shahidullah Shahid, a.k.a. Shaykh Maqbool, pictured on the right.

Afghanistan’s National Directorate of Security (NDS) claimed that the US killed the Islamic State’s spokesman for its Khorasan province in a recent airstrike in eastern Afghanistan. The NDS also claimed that the US killed the deputy emir for Khorasan province earlier this week.

The NDS said that Shahidullah Shahid, whose real name is Shaykh Maqbool, was killed in a strike in Nangarhar province, where the Islamic State has gained ground against the rival Taliban.

“Based on [HASHTAG]#NDS[/HASHTAG] intelligence, Mawlawi Shahedullah Shahed, a senior ISIS commander was killed in a air strike in Achin district, Nengarhar,” the NDS tweetedon its official account.

The date of the attack that purportedly killed Shahid was not disclosed by the NDS. The US military has not commented on reports of the death of Shahid or operations in Nangarhar. The Islamic State has not commented on reports of Shahid’s death.

The US has launched a series of airstrikes in Nangarhar over the past week that have targeted the Islamic State, according to Afghan press reports. At least 120 Islamic State and Taliban fighters are said to have been killed in strikes in the districts of Achin, Bati Kot, and Dih Bala, although the death toll cannot be confirmed.

Among those reported killed are Gull Zaman, who the NDS claimed was Khorasan Province’s deputy emir, and his lieutenant, Jahanyar. Gull Zaman may be Gul Zamn Fateh, the Islamic State’s commander for the Khyber tribal agency in Pakistan, who was among several mid-level commanders to defect from the Movement of the Taliban in Pakistan last year. The Islamic State did not confirm or deny reports of Zaman’s death. [See LWJ report, Deputy emir of Islamic State’s Khorasan province reported killed in US drone strike.]

The Islamic State has made inroads into Nangarhar province at the expense of the Taliban. Over the past six months, the group has battled with the Taliban for control over the province, and is said to have assassinated the Taliban’s shadow governor for Nangarhar. The Islamic State is said to have a strong presence in nine of Nangarhar’s 22 districts.

The infighting between the two jihadist groups led Mullah Akhtar Mohammad Mansour, the deputy leader of the Afghan Taliban, to issue an appeal to Abu Bakr al Baghdadi, the emir of the Islamic State, to end the discord and submit to the “Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan,” or the Taliban. Mansour said that the infighting only benefits “the invading crusaders.” [See LWJ report, Taliban chastise Islamic State for dividing jihadist ranks in Afghanistan and beyond.]

It is unclear if Shahid’s death would impact the Islamic State in any significant way. Unlike the media arms for other Islamic State “provinces,” Shahid’s operation has been relatively quiet on the group’s activities in the Khorasan province.

Shahid previously served as the spokesman for the Movement of the Taliban in Pakistan before defecting to the Islamic State with five mid-level commanders in October 2014. His defection created some confusion, as he claimed to be serving as the Taliban’s spokesman at the time of his defection. The Movement of the Taliban in Pakistan released a statement claiming that Shahid was removed as its spokesman long before he defected, and that he was incorrectly using the name “Shahidullah Shahid,” as it is the nom de guerre for the group’s spokesman.

 

[RabzonKhan]

5 killed, 3 injured in U.S. drone strike in NW Pakistan

ISLAMABAD, Aug. 6 (Xinhua) -- At least five people were killed and three others injured in a U.S. drone strike in Pakistan's northwest tribal area of North Waziristan on Thursday night, local media reported.

Abb Takk News said that the U.S. pilotless aircraft fired two missiles at the headquarters of Haqqani network, located in Datta Khel area of North Waziristan, a semi-autonomous tribal area along Pakistan-Afghanistan border.

The center was leveled to ground, following the attack and the residents pulled the bodies of the killed people from the debris.

Media reports said that all the five deceased belonged to the Haqqani network who were targeted during a meeting.

The drones kept on hovering over the area before and after the strike, causing panic among local residents.

The attack on the Haqqani network headquarters came a week after Afghan Taliban sources told media that the chief of the Haqqani network Jalaluddin Haqqani died of illness a year ago.

The latest strike is 11th of its kind in tribal areas of Pakistan since the beginning of this year.

So far this year more than 68 people have been killed and many others injured in such strikes in the country.

 

[TruthSeeker]

US kills 7 ‘militants’ in drone strike in South Waziristan

BY BILL ROGGIO | September 18, 2015

The US killed seven “militants” in a drone strike today in Pakistan’s Taliban-infested tribal agency of South Waziristan. The CIA-operated, remotely piloted Predators or Reapers fired several missiles at a vehicle in the village of Shonkrai Narai in the Ladha area of South Waziristan, The Express Tribune reported. Seven jihadists were killed and two more were wounded in the strike.

The identities of those killed were not disclosed. The Taliban and other jihadist organizations such as al Qaeda that are known to operate in the Ladha area have not announced the deaths of any senior leaders, commanders, or operatives.

Ladha is a traditional base of support for the Mehsud branch of the Pakistani Taliban. The area is administered by Sajna Mehsud, who heads a splinter faction that broke away from the Movement of the Taliban in Pakistan (TTP) in May 2014 due to a leadership dispute. Sajna, who is said to support peace talks and has allied with North Waziristan Taliban commander Hafiz Gul Bahadar, formed the Movement of the Taliban in South Waziristan. The spokesman for the new Taliban faction accused its parent organization of being “un-Islamic.” [See LWJ report, Discord dissolves Pakistani Taliban coalition.]

The US added Sajna, who is also known as Khan Said, to the list of Specially Designated Global Terrorists in October 2014. His forces wage jihad in both Afghanistan and Pakistan.

Today’s strike is just the second recorded in Pakistan this month. On Sept. 1, the US killed five jihadists, including three Uzbeks, in a strike on a compound in North Waziristan.

The US has also targeted Taliban fighters just across the border in the district of Gomal in Afghanistan’s eastern province of Paktika. On Sept. 9, the US killed 15 fighters from the TTP in an airstrike.

Today’s drone strike in South Waziristan is the eleventh reported in Pakistan this year. Last year, the US launched 24 airstrikes inside Pakistan; 19 of them took place in North Waziristan, four in South Waziristan, and one in Kurram. The number of operations in Pakistan has decreased each year since the program’s peak in 2010, when 117 attacks were recorded by The Long War Journal.

US kills 7 ‘militants’ in drone strike in South Waziristan | The Long War Journal

3 Uzbeks among 5 ‘militants’ killed in drone strike in North Waziristan

BY BILL ROGGIO | September 2, 2015

The US killed five “militants,” including several Uzbeks, in the first drone strike in Pakistan in nearly a month.

The CIA-operated, remotely piloted Predators or Reapers fired several missiles at a compound in the village of Lawara Banga in the Shawal Valley area of North Waziristan, according to news reports from the region. Five jihadists, including three Uzbeks were killed, and three more militants were seriously wounded in the strike.

The identities of those killed were not disclosed. The Taliban and other jihadist organizations such as al Qaeda that are known to operate in the Shawal Valley have not announced the deaths of any senior leaders, commanders, or operatives.

The Uzbeks may have been members of the Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan, whose leader recently swore allegiance to the Islamic State, or the splinter Islamic Jihadi Union, which remains loyal to the Taliban and al Qaeda. Both groups are known to operate in North Waziristan.

The Shawal Valley, which is administered by Taliban commander Hafiz Gul Bahadar and spans both North and South Waziristan, is a known haven for al Qaeda and other terror groups operating in the region. A number of Taliban, Pakistani, and foreign jihadist groups gather in the Shawal Valley and then enter Afghanistan to fight US, NATO, and Afghan government forces.

The US has launched 28 drone strikes in the Shawal Valley since September 2010, according to data compiled by The Long War Journal. The last recorded strike in the Shawal Valley took place on June 6. Nine members of the Haqqani Network, a Taliban subgroup that is close to al Qaeda, were killed.

Senior jihadist commanders have been killed in the area in the past. Abdul Shakoor Turkistani, the former emir of the Turkistan Islamic Party, was killed in a strike in August 2012; while three al Qaeda military trainers were killed in an attack there in August 2013.

3 Uzbeks among 5 ‘militants’ killed in drone strike in North Waziristan | The Long War Journal

 

[RabzonKhan]

24 militants killed in US drone strikes in NW, Pak-Afghan border

By Shamim Shahid
Published: January 9, 2016

At least 24 militants were killed in two separate US drone strikes in North Waziristan and Pakistan, Afghanistan border on Saturday.

At least four militants, including a top commander of the banned Tehrek-e-Taliban Pakistan, were killed and several others were injured in a US drone strike in the Mangrooti area of the North Waziristan.

The target of the drone strike was a militant hideout at Mangrooti, a village situated on boundaries of North Waziristan with Afghanistan in snow-covered Shawal mountainous region in Data Khel Tehsil.

The deceased included Maulana Noor Saeed belonging to Jani Khel, Frontier Region. However, identities of other militants killed in the strikes couldn’t be ascertained as yet.

Bloody battle: Afghan Taliban capture Da’ish stronghold in Nangarhar province

Earlier today at least 20 militants were killed in a US drone strike near the Pakistan, Afghanistan border. Officials said the militants were suspected to belong to the Islamic State militant group.

The suspects were killed in a drone targeting militant hideouts in Nangarhar’s Nazyan district. Several militant hideouts were also destroyed in the attack.

There have been several drone strikes near the Pak-Afghan border in the past with recent targets being IS hideouts. Nazyan is one of the two districts left under the control of the militant group as it recently lost control of two districts in Nangarhar province.

Earlier this week, the Taliban captured a stronghold of the IS’s Khurasan chapter in the Afghan province of Nangarhar after three days of fierce fighting that claimed over 150 lives on both sides.

US drone strike kills six Islamic State militants near Pak-Afghan border

Saad Muradi, a front-line man of IS, also known by its Arabic acronym Da’ish, was also killed in the three-day long battle, according to officials monitoring the Pak-Afghan border in Khyber Agency. “The Taliban now control Batitkot and Chaparyal areas which were captured over the last two days while Nazyan fell today,” one official said.

Banned TTP chief Mullah Fazlullah had survived a drone strike in Nazyan, while several IS fighters have been killed in the region in the US drone campaign. Local sources confirmed the development, saying more than 2,500 Taliban fighters were involved in the battle. They added that over 150 fighters were killed in fighting which is ongoing. “Of them, 35 are Taliban fighters.”

 

[RabzonKhan]

Suspected U.S. Drone Strike Hits Pakistan's Kurram Tribal Region

by MUSHTAQ YUSUFZAI
FEB 22 2016

PESHAWAR, Pakistan — Four missiles fired by a suspected U.S. drone hit mud homes in Pakistan's troubled Kurram tribal region Monday, a local official and residents told NBC News.

Three residents in the town of Sadda, just 10 miles from the Afghan border, said the strike hit three homes, killing four suspected militants and injuring three others.

A local government official speaking on condition of anonymity confirmed the strike but said that no one died and only one person was injured. He said the homes were empty. Such discrepancies are common in the immediate aftermath of such strikes.

A map showing the site of the suspected U.S. drone strike in Sadda, Pakistan.Google Maps

The villagers, who did not want to be named for security reasons, claimed the four people killed were militants from the Haqqani network, a powerful organization which has been described as the "Kennedys of the Taliban movement."

One of the tribesmen said that Taliban militants used to stay in the houses before ‎and after their attacks against foreign and Afghan forces across the border.

He said the four injured militants were treated at a private medical clinic in the town.

U.S. military officials in the Afghan capital of Kabul declined to comment.

 

[Dalit]

The Americans only fueling more hate and bloodshed. God knows how many innocent folks have perished in these drone attacks. There is no transparency nor any oversight. It is very messy.

The key word in your post is "innocent". If a terrorist commander has his wife serving his fellow combatants a meal in his home when a drone missile strikes and kills them all, was she "innocent"? I don't think so. Realistically very few "innocents" have been killed in the past several years as mission parameters are set to bend over backwards to avoid collateral killing of uninvolved people. And, secondly, the targeted people purposefully kill innocents in every operation they mount. They have no moral standing to complain, nor does "Pakistan".

The people that come and kill our children purposefully mostly cross the border from Afghanistan right under your noses. These are mostly Afghan terrorists that are trained in Indian terror consulates across the border. The American drone strikes have also killed countless innocent women and children.

There is a reason why American propaganda has failed to convince the people of Pakistan. It has no substance and neither does your rhetoric.