(Previous Incident Code: Ob17 )

In the first confirmed deliberate CIA attack on rescuers, up to 40 people, mostly Pakistani militants, were reported killed in a double strike by US led drones on a vehicle and the reputed house of Hikmat Roshan, local media reported.

A nearby madrassa was also reported damaged. Two Arabs were reported among the dead, including Asad al-Misri, as well as a number of unnamed local commanders. Both the New York Times and The News cited locals as saying that those killed were ‘mostly militants.’

After a short pause returning drones then attacked rescuers as they tried to retrieve the dead and injured. Four Taliban rescuers died, according to the Bureau’s researchers in Waziristan, along with nine rescuers they identified as civilians and named as ‘Sabir, Ikram, Mohib, Zahid, Mashal and Syed Noor. All hailed from the Utmanzai Wazir tribe of North Waziristan . Names of three slain men couldn’t be obtained.’

The News quoted a local militant commander, “They were recovering bodies of the slain militants when the drone fired two more missiles, almost 12 minutes after the first attack. It was terrible as almost all the Taliban involved in rescue work were targeted… We lost very trained and sincere friends. Some of them were very senior Taliban commanders and had taken part in successful actions in Afghanistan. Bodies of most of them were beyond recognition.”