Death toll climbs after U.S. air strike in Pakistan
CBC News
October 4, 2008
Pakistani villagers collected the corpses and body parts on Saturday of at least 20 people, including several suspected Arab militants as well as three children, killed by a U.S. missile strike overnight.
A pilotless drone aircraft launched the attack late on Friday, targeting a tribesman’s house in Mohammad Khel, a village 30 kilometres west of Miranshah in North Waziristan, a known sanctuary of al-Qaeda and Taliban militants close to the Afghan border.
Initially, officials reported at least five people in one house died.
Villagers combed the wreckage at daybreak, looking for survivors and bodies to be buried.
“We found body parts scattered all over the place in the ruins, someone’s hand, someone’s leg,” Bakht Ali, one of the villagers, told Reuters.
An intelligence official based in the region said a woman and three children were among those killed.
“We now have a figure of 20 dead. That includes eight residents of the house, five other locals and seven foreigners,” the official said, speaking on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the subject.
The foreigners appeared to be Arabs, although their nationalities were unknown, he said.
There were no indications that any of those killed were regarded by U.S. counterterrorism agencies as top tier al-Qaeda targets, sources said.
Pakistan’s The News newspaper reported that the strike was carried out based on information that the foreigners had been invited to a feast by pro-Taliban tribesmen following the end of the Muslim fasting month of Ramadan.
An army spokesman said there had been an explosion in the area, but was unable to confirm the cause.
Shooting at drone
Faced with an intensifying Taliban insurgency in Afghanistan, U.S. forces in the past month have carried out eight missile strikes by pilotless drones and a commando raid on the Pakistani side of the border.
Tribesmen in Mir Ali, a town 25 kilometres east of Miranshah, fired at a U.S. drone on Saturday before it turned away. A U.S. missile attack on Mir Ali killed five people, including foreign militants, on Wednesday.
The air strikes, and the first-ever use of ground troops, have strained relations between the allies.
The Pakistani government has protested that the attacks violated territorial sovereignty and undermined its own long-term efforts to crush militancy in a country where anti-American sentiment runs high.
Source | See Also: US Incursion Turned Back by Pakistan Army | Bush secret order to send special forces into Pakistan | Pakistan fury over ‘US assault’ | Musharraf resigns as Pakistan president | CIA, Pakistani ISI have long, complicated relationship | U.S. Intel Officer: Al Qaeda Leadership Allowed To Operate Freely in Pakistan | US scales up covert destabilization efforts in Iran, continues funding ‘al-Qaeda’ | Afghanistan suggests Pakistan responsible for embassy bombing | Report: U.S. Gave Green Light For Taliban Prison Attack | US Experts Can’t Agree on Whether ‘Al-Qaeda’ Poses a Threat, Look to ‘Leaderless Jihad’ in America | Afghan attacks rise as al-Qaeda gains strength: U.S. report | Benazir Bhutto: Bin Laden Murdered | New Bin Laden Video: 100% Forgery | Investigative Reporter Seymour Hersh: US Indirectly Funding Al-Qaeda Linked Sunni Groups in Move to Counter Iran | U.S. Government Caught Red-Handed Releasing Staged Al-Qaeda Videos | Terror accused refuses to discuss links to Pakistan secret service, family threatened | London terror plotter was ‘hardened’ in ISI camp | Swiss scientists 95% sure that Bin Laden recording was fake | US Allowed Taliban, Al-Qaeda Airlift Evacuation
October 21st, 2008 at 11:42 am
[...] to heroin trafficking | National Post Columnist: Who dares to question the ‘Big Lie of 9/11′? | Death toll climbs after U.S. air strike in Pakistan | Lawyers say UK Guantánamo suspect has no hope of fair trial | Doubt Arises in Account of [...]
October 27th, 2008 at 11:54 am
[...] mission cost: up to $18B | Delta Force Officer: We Weren’t Allowed to Kill Osama Bin Laden | Death toll climbs after U.S. air strike in Pakistan | Victory impossible in Afghanistan: senior British commander | US Africom ‘has no hidden [...]
November 17th, 2008 at 4:51 pm
[...] | See Also under Pakistan: Death toll climbs after U.S. air strike in Pakistan | US Incursion Turned Back by Pakistan Army | Bush secret order to send special forces into [...]
January 9th, 2009 at 4:58 pm
[...] Georgia ’security’ zone | Delta Force Officer: We Weren’t Allowed to Kill Osama Bin Laden | Death toll climbs after U.S. air strike in Pakistan | Victory impossible in Afghanistan: senior British commander | Defiant military watchdog widens [...]
March 5th, 2009 at 5:40 pm
[...] strikes Mumbai | Don’t-ask-don’t-tell Policy: Pakistan and U.S. Have Tacit Deal On Airstrikes | Death toll climbs after U.S. air strike in Pakistan | US Incursion Turned Back by Pakistan Army | Bush secret order to send special forces into [...]
May 11th, 2009 at 12:58 pm
[...] strikes Mumbai | Don’t-ask-don’t-tell Policy: Pakistan and U.S. Have Tacit Deal On Airstrikes | Death toll climbs after U.S. air strike in Pakistan | US Incursion Turned Back by Pakistan Army | Bush secret order to send special forces into [...]
June 1st, 2009 at 12:04 pm
[...] strikes Mumbai | Don’t-ask-don’t-tell Policy: Pakistan and U.S. Have Tacit Deal On Airstrikes | Death toll climbs after U.S. air strike in Pakistan | US Incursion Turned Back by Pakistan Army | Bush secret order to send special forces into [...]
February 13th, 2010 at 7:57 am
[...] strikes Mumbai | Don’t-ask-don’t-tell Policy: Pakistan and U.S. Have Tacit Deal On Airstrikes | Death toll climbs after U.S. air strike in Pakistan | US Incursion Turned Back by Pakistan Army | Bush secret order to send special forces into [...]
February 18th, 2010 at 2:49 am
[...] strikes Mumbai | Don’t-ask-don’t-tell Policy: Pakistan and U.S. Have Tacit Deal On Airstrikes | Death toll climbs after U.S. air strike in Pakistan | US Incursion Turned Back by Pakistan Army | Bush secret order to send special forces into [...]
March 5th, 2010 at 8:38 am
[...] to Iraq | Don’t-ask-don’t-tell Policy: Pakistan and U.S. Have Tacit Deal On Airstrikes | Death toll climbs after U.S. air strike in Pakistan | US Incursion Turned Back by Pakistan Army | Bush secret order to send special forces into [...]
May 11th, 2010 at 5:52 am
[...] Related: Pakistan air strike ‘kills 71 civilians’ | WikiLeaks releases video of alleged U.S. helicopter attack on Reuters reporters | 1 in 3 Killed by U.S. Drone Attacks In Pakistan Are Civilians | Afghan ministers voice anger as civilians killed in Nato air strike | Five civilians killed in Nato rocket attack in Afghanistan | Suspected US drone ‘kills 12′ in Pakistan | U.S. prods Pakistan to expand offensive | Pakistan anti-Taliban offensive in South Waziristan ‘over’ | U.S. Military Joins CIA’s Drone War in Pakistan | US Air Force confirms new ‘Beast of Kandahar’ drone | German army chief resigns over Afghanistan air strike | Clinton confronted by Pakistanis over attacks by aerial drones | UN: Drone attacks may violate international law | US drone ’shot down over Somalia’ | Refugee flood reveals human cost of South Waziristan’s invisible war | ‘Taliban’ resist Pakistan onslaught | Pakistani troops assault ‘Taliban’ stronghold | Militants attack Pakistani cities | Pakistan launches air strikes before offensive | NATO pledges probe of deadly Afghan air strike; civilians killed | Pakistan remains silent as U.S. air attack kills 80 | Afghan Airstrike Video Goes Down the Memory Hole | Homing chips are CIA’s latest weapon against ‘al-Qaida’ targets hiding in Pakistan’s tribal belt | CIA: Our Drones are Killing Terrorists. Promise | US air strikes kill dozens of Afghan civilians | NATO denies air strike killed Afghan civilians | Don’t-ask-don’t-tell Policy: Pakistan and U.S. Have Tacit Deal On Airstrikes | Death toll climbs after U.S. air strike in Pakistan [...]