"Senior Pakistani Taliban figure is killed in Afghanistan" by Kay Johnson | Associated Press, August 26, 2012
KABUL — A NATO airstrike in eastern Afghanistan killed a senior commander of the Pakistani Taliban who had close ties with Al Qaeda, dealing a blow to the militants who operate on both sides of the countries’ porous border.
Mullah Dadullah was killed Friday in Afghanistan’s eastern Kunar Province, which lies just across the border from the Pakistani tribal area of Bajur, the military alliance said. He was the Pakistani Taliban leader in Bajur, and NATO said Saturday that Dadullah also was responsible for the movement of fighters and weapons across the frontier as well as attacks against Afghan and coalition forces in Afghanistan.
Eleven other militants were also killed in the airstrike in Kunar’s Shigal district, about 9 miles from the Pakistani border, including Dadullah’s deputy, identified only as Shakir, the coalition said.
Dadullah’s death will be a blow for the Taliban in Bajur, where the Pakistani military launched an offensive against militants in 2010, because he was an experienced commander and close to Al Qaeda, said Mansur Mahsud, an Islamabad-based expert on Pakistani militants. But he said it is unlikely to have much of an impact on the broader Pakistani Taliban movement that operates in the rest the country’s rugged, lawless tribal region along the Afghan border.
‘‘He wasn’t that senior in the group, and he wasn’t that influential in the six other tribal agencies outside Bajur,’’ Mahsud said.
Still, the killing of a foe of the Pakistani government is likely to be well received in Islamabad at a time when Pakistan’s military is said to be preparing an offensive in North Waziristan, the base of the powerful Haqqani network that has been behind a string of high-profile attacks on Western targets in Kabul.
The militant hideouts along the Afghan-Pakistan border have long been a source of tension for Kabul, Islamabad and the international coalition, and Dadullah’s killing could help ease the pressure that has built up.
Several times this summer, Afghan officials have said Pakistani shells have landed on Afghan territory, sometimes killing civilians. Pakistani officials have said their forces have been responding to cross-border attacks by militants from Afghanistan.
Islamabad has long demanded that NATO and Afghan forces crack down on Pakistani militants launching attacks from hideouts on the Afghan side of the border. At the same time, American military commanders have been pressuring Islamabad to launch military strikes on the Haqqani network in North Waziristan.
General John R. Allen, the top US and NATO commander in Afghanistan, said Dadullah posed a danger ‘‘to coalition, Afghan and Pakistani forces, to innocent civilians on both sides of the border,’’ and said his death would help cooperation between the US-led coalition and Pakistan.
‘‘We also have long believed that close cooperation with our Pakistani partners is critical in combating the menace of terrorism, and dealing with this target furthers that objective as well,’’ Allen said in a statement.
NATO would not say whether an unmanned drone or manned aircraft had carried out the strike.
A Pakistani Taliban spokesman, Ahsanullah Ahsan, said it was a drone that killed Dadullah. He said Maulana Abu Bakar was named the new Taliban chief of Bajur.
Dadullah became Bajur’s Pakistani Taliban chief early this year after the Taliban removed his predecessor to punish him for holding unauthorized peace talks with Islamabad, Pakistani intelligence officials said on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to brief the media.
Dadullah, who real name was Sayed Jamal, was a shop owner in Bajur before joining the Pakistani Taliban in 2008, and he was believed to be in his mid-30s or 40s, they said. He worked with Al Qaeda prior to that and maintained close ties to the group.
Then I suppose the CIA would have known where to find him.
As head of the Taliban’s religious police unit in Bajur, he enforced a strict interpretation of Islam and closed shops that sold CDs (music is deemed heretical), according to the intelligence officials. Shop owners who refused were punished and their stores were bombed.
The Pakistani Taliban, one of many loosely allied extremist groups that operate in Pakistan’s tribal region, wants to impose the same kind of hard-line interpretation of Islamic law as the Afghan Taliban that ruled Afghanistan until the 2001 US-led invasion ousted the hard-line regime for sheltering Al Qaeda’s leaders.
Which was okay with Washington until after the false-flag inside job of 9/11. Hell, Bush had the invasion orders on his desk the day before.
But the Pakistani branch primarily focuses its attacks on the Pakistani state, not international troops in neighboring Afghanistan.
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Not much of new format, is it?
"US drone kills 5 militants in northwest Pakistan" Associated Press, August 22, 2012
ISLAMABAD, Pakistan — An unmanned American aircraft fired missiles at a vehicle in a Pakistani tribal area bordering Afghanistan Tuesday, killing five suspected militants and injuring two, Pakistani intelligence officials said.
The strike was part of a spike in American drone attacks, which have drawn official Pakistani criticism in the past. The spurt of drone action threatened to add tensions to relations between the two allies, just as they appeared to be improving....
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Related: US drones kill 5 suspected militants
Different attack.
"US drone strikes kill 18 in Pakistan; Attack marks escalation of protested tactic" by Declan Walsh | New York Times, August 25, 2012
ISLAMABAD, Pakistan — A volley of US drone strikes in Pakistan’s tribal belt early Friday killed at least 18 people, security officials said, marking a sharp escalation of the CIA-led campaign that continues to roil relations with Pakistan.
Good Christ!
Drones fired at least six missiles at three locations in the Shawal Valley, a thickly forested mountainous area in North Waziristan, a tribal agency, said two Pakistani security officials, and a Taliban commander. The missiles struck mud-walled compounds and two vehicles, killing at least 18 people, one of the security officials said.
The identity of those killed was not known. Previous strikes have targeted commanders and fighters in trucks headed for the Afghan border.
‘‘It’s a mixed bag,’’ said a Pakistani security official, describing the militants in Shawal Valley. ‘‘There are TTP elements there and there are foreign militants there,’’ he said referring to Tehrik-i-Taliban Pakistan, commonly known as the Pakistani Taliban.
Oh, I so rarely see the term Tehrik-e-Taliban in my intelligence operation known as a newspaper.
Related: Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan is a Zionist terrorist fifth column
Role of Tehrik-e-Taliban-Pakistan and Afghan Taliban
Unraveling the Myth of Al Qaida
Oh, so TTP is "Al-CIA-Duh's" Taliban, 'eh?
The attacks came one day after the Pakistani Foreign Office summoned a
US Embassy official to protest drone strikes in North Waziristan during
the annual Id al-Fitr religious holiday, which ended Wednesday.
That's blasphemy to send those missiles down then.
It was the eighth time in 12 months that Pakistan’s government had
issued a formal protest on the issue, a senior Pakistani official said.
Although Pakistan and the United States patched up differences over NATO
supply routes in July, drone strikes remain an impediment to normal
relations.
Pakistan’s military has proposed that it can carry out the strikes
using its fleet of US-built F-16 warplanes; human rights activists
complain about civilian casualties and worry that the strikes further
agitate anti-US hostility and attract recruits for militant groups.
The Obama administration has rejected those demands, saying that the
covert campaign offers the most effective tool against militants hiding
in an area where the Pakistani state has largely lost control.
Your increase in drone attacks means that Peace Prize is worthless, sir.
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Related: Key militant said to be killed in airstrike
Again?
Militants from Afghanistan attack Pakistan again
Different airstrike in there.
"Activists blocked in bid to protest US drone strikes" Associated Press, October 08, 2012
TANK, Pakistan — The Pakistani military blocked a convoy carrying thousands of Pakistanis and a small contingent of US antiwar activists from entering a lawless tribal region along the border with Afghanistan on Sunday to protest American drone strikes.
The group, led by cricket-star-turned-politician Imran Khan and his political party, was turned back a few miles from the border of South Waziristan. After an hour of fruitless negotiations, Khan announced that the caravan would backtrack to the city of Tank, about 9 miles away. There, he delivered a speech to the crowd of about 10,000.
Khan has harshly criticized the Pakistani government’s cooperation with Washington in the fight against Islamist militants.
He has been especially outspoken against US drone strikes targeting militants and has argued that Islamabad’s alliance with Washington is the main reason Pakistan is facing a homegrown Taliban insurgency. He has suggested before that militant activity in Pakistan’s tribal areas will dissipate when the United States ends the war across the border in Afghanistan.
“We want to give a message to America that the more you carry out drone attacks, the more people will hate you,” Khan told the crowd.
The anti-American sentiment, always high in Pakistan, was evident in the crowd that waved banners saying “Down with America,” and “The friend of America is the traitor of the nation.”
Pakistan’s tribal regions, such as North and South Waziristan, border Afghanistan and serve as bases for militant groups such as the Taliban to stage raids across the border into Afghanistan.
About three dozen Americans from the US-based antiwar group Codepink joined Khan for the march.
Related:
Controlled Opposition Embarrass Banker Minion Summers
"Code Pink is on the payroll of Winston Foundation, an organization linked to the National Endowment for Democracy, a documented CIA front, and connected as well to the Rockefeller Family Fund, the Carnegie Corporation, the Heinz Family Foundation, and the Soros Foundations. In 2003, Code Pink shared office space with the Institute for Policy Studies, an organization taking money from the Turner, Ford, MacArthur and Charles Stewart Mott foundations. The Ford Foundation is notorious for funding liberal organizations. It is connected to the Council on Foreign Relations, the Trilateral Commission, and the CIA (see Alternative Media Censorship: Sponsored by CIA’s Ford Foundation?)."
I was wondering how they got into Pakistan.
The American protesters say the US drone strikes, contrary to the assertions of American officials, have terrorized peaceful tribes living along the border.
I agree with that. I can't think of anything more terrifying than hearing a loud whoosh, and then....
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Related: Pakistan Cricket Chirps
Interesting that he is not included in much of the recent chatter.
"US missiles kill 16 Pakistani militants; 13 more die in pair of separate bomb attacks" by Hussain Afzal | Associated Press, October 12, 2012
PARACHINAR, Pakistan — US drones fired four missiles at a compound of a Pakistani militant commander in a northwestern tribal region Thursday, killing 16 militants, and two bombings in another part of the country killed 10 civilians and three security personnel, officials said....
Although US authorities often target militant hideouts in the country’s North and South Waziristan tribal regions bordering Afghanistan, such strikes in other tribal regions like Orakzai are rare. The United States rarely discusses the unmanned drone strikes, which are part of a covert CIA program.
They have been talking about them a lot at the Brennan confirmation hearings.
The strikes are extremely contentious in Pakistan, where many consider them an affront to Pakistani sovereignty. They also say the strikes kill innocent civilians, which the United States denies.
They are all innocent when you consider the whole program is based on a pack of 9/11 lies.
The Pakistani government protested to the US Embassy in Islamabad about Thursday’s drone strikes as well as another Wednesday in which five people were killed.
The bodies are piling up, aren't they?
‘‘The embassy was informed that drone strikes on Pakistani territory were a clear violation of international law and Pakistan’s sovereignty. These attacks were unacceptable to Pakistan,’’ the Foreign Ministry said in a statement....
AmeriKa is an empire, and thus above international law.
The latest drone attack came hours after a bomb at a crowded market in Pakistan’s restive southwestern province of Baluchistan killed 10 people. A roadside bombing elsewhere in the troubled region killed three security officials, police said.
Related: Sectarian Split in Pakistan
No one immediately claimed responsibility for the bombings, but nationalists in Baluchistan have long waged a low-level insurgency to pressure the government to increase the local share of funds from resources such as natural gas that are extracted from the province.
The hallmark of an intelligence agency operation, and I'm surprised to see the real reasons for rebellion in Baluchistan.
Islamist militants, including the Al Qaeda affiliated group Lashkar-e-Jhangvi, also operate in Baluchistan.
Yeah, CIA-Duh is there.
The market bombing Thursday took place in the town of Sibi in Baluchistan, and it also wounded 24 people, said senior police officer, Ghulam Aali Lashari. He said the blast destroyed several shops.
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"Taliban leader killed by US drone" by Shaiq Hussain and Haq Nawaz Khan | Washington Post, January 04, 2013
ISLAMABAD — A US drone strike in the South Waziristan tribal region of Pakistan killed at least six people, Pakistani government officials said Thursday, including the powerful Taliban commander Maulvi Nazir Wazir.
Nazir was killed along with another key commander, Rapa Khan, and four other militants in the missile strike Wednesday on Nazir’s vehicle near Wana, the largest town in the South Waziristan area, said a government official who asked that his name not be used.
‘‘Mullah Nazir was going in a car from Birmal village to Wana when his vehicle was hit by the drone strike,’’ said the official. He said all six slain militants were in the car.
Some Pakistani news channels, quoting local administration officials, put the death toll at nine. One such report also said the drone strike that killed Nazir struck a house near Wana where he and other militants were present.
See: Missile Strikes Kill and Kill Again
You wouldn't even Wana argue it.
A Pakistani intelligence official in the area confirmed the reports of Nazir’s killing. However, the Taliban group led by Nazir did not confirm or deny his death, and there was no official confirmation by the Pakistani government.
Pentagon spokesman George Little could not confirm Nazir’s death, but said it could be a major development, if corroborated.
‘‘As a general matter, any time a bad guy has a bad day, that’s a good day for us,’’ he told reporters Thursday morning.
I'm a little tired of the world being boiled down to bad guys and good guys.
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"Pakistan, India clash across Kashmir border; US drones kill 12 in Waziristan, officials say" by Declan Walsh | New York Times, January 07, 2013
ISLAMABAD — On Sunday the Central Intelligence Agency continued to press its drone strike campaign in Waziristan, with three missile attacks against suspected militant bases that killed at least 12 people, according to Pakistani intelligence officials.
In one strike, in South Waziristan, a remotely piloted US aircraft fired 10 missiles into a suspected Pakistani Taliban training camp, one intelligence official said, speaking by phone on the condition of anonymity.
A senior Taliban militant, speaking by phone from Waziristan on the condition of anonymity, confirmed the strike. Three senior Taliban commanders were believed to have died, he said, including one who had coordinated a jailbreak in Bannu last year that allowed 390 inmates to escape.
Another commander who is believed to have died, Wali Muhammad, also known as Tuffani Mehsud, was considered to be the leader of the Pakistani Taliban’s suicide bomber squad. ‘‘It is a major blow to our organization,’’ the Taliban militant said.
Mehsud’s predecessor, Qari Husain Mehsud, was believed to have been killed in a US missile strike in late 2011.
Mahsud was part of the Pakistani Taliban that have waged war against the Pakistani state by targeting army, police, government officials, civilians and even religious leaders who wouldn’t agree to their interpretation of Islam.
PESHAWAR, Pakistan — A US drone strike has killed a senior Al Qaeda leader in Pakistan’s tribal region near the Afghan border, Pakistani intelligence officials said, in the latest blow to the Islamist militant network.
Sheik Khalid bin Abdel Rehman al-Hussainan, who was also known as Abu Zaid al-Kuwaiti, was killed when missiles slammed into a house Thursday near Mir Ali, one of the main towns in the North Waziristan tribal area, the officials said. They spoke on condition of anonymity.
Kuwaiti appeared in many videos released by Al Qaeda’s media wing, Al-Sahab, and was presented as a religious scholar for the group.
PFFFFFFFFT!
Earlier this year, he replaced Abu Yahya al-Libi, Al Qaeda’s second in command, who was killed in a US drone strike in North Waziristan in June, the intelligence officials said.
Yah, ya, alibi? Does this guy even f***ing exist, or is it just another made-up, fart-in-your-face laugher?
Libi was a key religious figure within Al Qaeda and also a prominent militant commander.
Oh, well, now I'm convinced.
Kuwaiti appeared to be a less prominent figure and was not part of the US State Department’s list of most wanted terrorist suspects, as Libi had been.
Covert CIA drone strikes have killed a series of senior Al Qaeda and Taliban leaders in Pakistan’s tribal region over the past few years. The attacks are controversial because the secret nature of the program makes it difficult to determine how many civilians are being killed.
The Obama administration claims none!
On Sunday, four drone-launched missiles blew apart a house near Miran Shah, another main town in North Waziristan, killing three suspected militants, intelligence officials said.
Do you know who suspected militants are? Any male of fighting age.
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Also see: Hillary Clinton Drones On and On
Yeah, at least you won't have to listen to her anymore.
