(Previous Incident Code: B32 )

A suspected US-waged attack in Ghundikala, north Waziristan, allegedly aimed at a meeting of al Qaeda and Taliban leaders killed up to nine people, including at least three civilians, local and international media reported.

A security official told the Telegraph how “two missiles were fired, completely destroying the house.” There were claims that Pakistani intelligence had compromised the strike. Many senior militants were said by some to have departed the meeting shortly before the attack: “There was a meeting of around 30 foreign Al-Qaeda and local Taliban commanders in the house of Hafiz Sahar Gul but the majority of them left the building ten minutes before the missile struck,’” a security official told AFP.

The death toll spanned across the reports from at least five to as many as nine with many claiming that all the killed were militants, including four to six ‘Arabs’.

However, AFP reported that the wife and children of local Taliban commander Hafiz Sahar Gul, and another unknown woman were killed.

Moreover, lawyer Mirza Shahzad Akbar, representing Mohammad Yusuf, a surviving member of a family, said that four were killed, two uncles and two cousins as he challenged the version of events in a case placed before the UN Human Rights Council in February 2012:

“Mohammad Yusuf is a resident of Dawar Tapi, Miranshah, North Waziristan, Pakistan. On Wednesday, October 9, 2008, he was in Ghundi Kala, at the house of his uncle Sultan Jan for a family gathering. In addition to Sultan Jan, others present at the house included: his cousin and son of Sultan Jan, Bukhtoor Gul; his uncle Aman Ullah Jan, and his cousin, and son of Aman Ullah Jan, Imran Khan. Imran was aged 14 and half years of age. No members of his family were involved with any terrorist organizations or activities, and there were no foreign nationals living at the house.

At approximately 10 PM that evening Mohammad Yusuf left the compound surrounding the house to defecate in a nearby field. From the field he saw a missile strike his uncle’s house, destroying part of the house and killing his two uncles and his two cousins. The missile was launched from a drone, which had been flying around the area.”

Though sources said that US drones carried out the strikes, US involvement has not been officially confirmed.