(Previous Incident Code: B5 )

In an attempt to hit al-Qaida’s “number 2”, Ayman al-Zawahiri, an alleged US drone killed up to 25 civilians, including five women and up to six children, as it struck Damadola, Bajaur Agency, local and international media reported. The strike was widely condemned among Pakistani officials and locals, though denied by the US itself.

Initially, Pakistani officials said the killed counted several high-ranking al-Qaeda leaders, though the main target, Ayman al-Zawahiri, was absent from the possible al Qaeda and Taliban gathering.

According to government officials, Midhat Mursi al-Sayid Umar, an Egyptian responsible for al-Qaeda’s research into chemical weapons and carried a $5 million U.S. government bounty on his head, Abu Obaidah al-Masri, the Egyptian chief of the al-Qaeda military wing that plots attacks in the West, Khalid Habib, a field commander for al-Qaeda in Afghanistan, and Zawahiri’s son-in-law, Abdul Rahman al-Maghribi were among the killed in the strike.

However, both U.S. and Pakistani officials announced later that only civilians were killed, as later reports by local officials suggested that most or all of the dead were civilians, including 14 from one family, with up to six children killed.

Overall, the civilian death toll spanned from 13 to as many as 25.

Telegraph put the death toll at 14, hereof five women and five children, reportedly from the same family, and an internal US government document reported that 16 people died, describing them instead as: “05 children 05 women and 6 mens [sic] all civilians.”

Washington Times, reported how “the missiles destroyed the houses and killed more than a dozen people,” quoting locals who said that 25 civilians were killed, though the official number of dead was 18.

The Pakistani government publicly protested the strike.  Following the strike, Pakistan’s foreign ministry summoned the US Ambassador Ryan Crocker to deliver an official protest. The US Congressional Research Service later described the attack:

“A missile attack on a residential compound in northwest Pakistan near the Afghan border killed up to 18 people, reportedly including numerous women and children. Some reports said the death toll was higher and included up to one dozen Islamic militants. Pakistani officials and local witnesses blamed the attack on U.S. air forces, possibly Predator drones that were targeting top Al Qaeda leader Ayman al- Zawahri, who was not at the scene. U.S. officials would not confirm U.S. involvement. The incident led to major public anti-U.S. demonstrations.”

Two weeks later, Zawahiri issued a video mocking the US for failing to kill him: “In seeking to kill my humble self and four of my brothers, the whole world has discovered the extent of America’s lies and failures and the extent of its savagery in fighting Islam and Muslims.”

Journalist Pir Zubair Shah visited the scene shortly afterwards and reported:

“The families of the victims took me to see their newly dug graves. “All those killed, including women and children, are from this village,” a villager told me as he showed me the burial site. “There were no foreigners here.” Then I noticed something odd: Although I counted 13 graves, the locals would only tell me the names of seven women and children who had been killed. When it came to the men, they were silent. Later, a Pakistani official told me foreigners had indeed been present, including Zawahiri, though he had left some time before the missile hit.”

The U.S. government never confirmed its involvement in that strike. A senior American government official, cited by the Telegraph, said that the Pakistani government would have been informed before an attack on a such high-profile target on its soil. However.

However, all sources identified the US as responsible. UN Special Rapporteur reported “In the early morning hours of 13 January 2006 a remote- piloted Predator aircraft of the United States security services launched a strike with “Hellfire” missiles on the village of Damadola in the Bajaur Agency, North Western Pakistan, close to the border with Afghanistan.”

First Reported killed:
Abu Khabab al Masri (WMD committee head) – false, see B17
Abd Rahman al Masri al Maghribi (al-Zawahiri’s son-in-law, al Qaeda commander) – unlikely
Abu Ubeidah al Masri (Kunar operations chief) – false – died of natural causes 2008
Marwan al Suri (Waziristan operations chief) – false – reportedly killed in a gunfight near Khaar near the Afghan border in April 2006
Khalid Habib (southeastern Afghanistan commander) – false – killed apparently by shelling in Afghanistan
Abdul Hadi al Iraqi (southwestern Afghanistan commander) – false – captured entering Iraq late 2006