Team Infidel
Forum Spin Doctor
New York Times
October 23, 2008
Pg. 15
MIRANSHAH, Pakistan (Reuters) — A remotely piloted United States aircraft was suspected of firing a missile into a Pakistani village early on Thursday, killing four tribesmen, residents said.
It was the latest strike aimed at a stronghold of a veteran Taliban commander, Jalaluddin Haqqani, an old friend of Osama bin Laden. The missile hit a village near Miranshah, the main town in the North Waziristan tribal region, near the Afghan border. Mr. Haqqani had established a madrasa, or religious school, in Miranshah. His extended family used to live there, as well.
Zardad Khan, a villager, said four people had been killed and three wounded in the attack. “They were all local people,” he said.
Twenty-three people, mostly relatives of Mr. Haqqani, were killed in a similar attack on the same village in September.
American forces, frustrated over growing cross-border militant attacks from the Pakistani side, have carried out about a dozen missile strikes and a commando raid in Pakistani tribal areas since the start of September.
A large number of militants have been killed in these attacks, but no senior commander of Al Qaeda or the Taliban is reported to have died so far.
One of Mr. Haqqani’s sons has said that Mr. Haqqani was in Afghanistan when the village was hit in September.
Mr. Haqqani is a veteran of the American-backed Afghan war against the Soviet invasion in the 1970s and 1980s, and his extended family had been living in North Waziristan since then. His links with Mr. bin Laden go back to the late 1980s.
Mr. Haqqani is said to be in poor health, and his son Sirajuddin is thought to be leading the Haqqani group.
October 23, 2008
Pg. 15
MIRANSHAH, Pakistan (Reuters) — A remotely piloted United States aircraft was suspected of firing a missile into a Pakistani village early on Thursday, killing four tribesmen, residents said.
It was the latest strike aimed at a stronghold of a veteran Taliban commander, Jalaluddin Haqqani, an old friend of Osama bin Laden. The missile hit a village near Miranshah, the main town in the North Waziristan tribal region, near the Afghan border. Mr. Haqqani had established a madrasa, or religious school, in Miranshah. His extended family used to live there, as well.
Zardad Khan, a villager, said four people had been killed and three wounded in the attack. “They were all local people,” he said.
Twenty-three people, mostly relatives of Mr. Haqqani, were killed in a similar attack on the same village in September.
American forces, frustrated over growing cross-border militant attacks from the Pakistani side, have carried out about a dozen missile strikes and a commando raid in Pakistani tribal areas since the start of September.
A large number of militants have been killed in these attacks, but no senior commander of Al Qaeda or the Taliban is reported to have died so far.
One of Mr. Haqqani’s sons has said that Mr. Haqqani was in Afghanistan when the village was hit in September.
Mr. Haqqani is a veteran of the American-backed Afghan war against the Soviet invasion in the 1970s and 1980s, and his extended family had been living in North Waziristan since then. His links with Mr. bin Laden go back to the late 1980s.
Mr. Haqqani is said to be in poor health, and his son Sirajuddin is thought to be leading the Haqqani group.