(Previous Incident Code: B34 )

A suspected US drone killed as many as nine people, including up to four civilians, and wounded another seven, as an alleged al-Qaeda leader’s car was struck in Taparghai, south Waziristan, local and international media reported.

Most reported that Egyptian Khalid Habib, al Qaeda’s chief of external operations, was reported killed in his parked vehicle along with up to four ‘militants’ in Taparghai. But a local Pakistani intelligence source and eyewitnesses told CNN that four civilians were also killed and seven injured when three nearby houses were damaged in the attack. One house was owned by local tribesman Ghazi Khan Mehsud.

Meanwhile, militants told The News that said only one person was killed and another injured in the US missile attack on the car. The remaining sources said that besides from the total of nine possible fatalities, between five and seven “people” were left wounded.

Habib had reportedly moved to Tapargai to escape drone strikes, the New York Times said:

“Mr. Habib had relocated to Taparghai expressly to avoid missile strikes, [a] former militant said. The area around Taparghai is near Makin, a base of Baitullah Mehsud, the chief of the Pakistani Taliban. Mr. Habib was in a parked Toyota station wagon, a favored vehicle of the militants in the tribal area, when he was hit by the missile, the former member of the militant group said. A resident of the village said in a telephone interview that the man killed in the attack seemed to be “important.” He was known in the village as Zalfay, the resident said. The name means “long hair” in Pashto, the language spoken in the area.”

All known sources said that US drones were behind the incident.

However, it should be noted that, as of now, the CNN article that quotes the local residents is no longer available, making Airrwars unable to access the original testimonials, reporting four civilian casualties. Thus, the civilian harm allegation is subject to a certain degree of uncertainty.