(Previous Incident Code: Ob165 )

At least one but as many as four civilians were killed in an alleged US drone strike in Pir Kelev, north Waziristan, local and international new reported, though other sources claimed that only militants, as many as six, were killed in the strike.

While initial reports said that between four and six militants were killed in the strike, that hit a car, later reports said that the strike killed four civilians, including one boy identified by name.

Student Sanaullah Jan was namely reported killed in the car with up to three college friends – although initial reports described them as “Taliban fighters.” Only later did it emerge that Sanaullah, aged 16 or 17, was an engineering student at the Government Degree College in Mir Ali. Family and friends insisted that he had no interest in the Taliban. The strike hit at around 4pm as he was making his way home from college, according to his brother Khairullah. His car was so damaged that little remained of Sanaullah but his burnt student ID card and licence. The Bureau of Invevestigative Journalaism’s researchers in Waziristan reported that:

“The information is sketchy and sometimes contradictory about the three others killed in the drone strike. Their names couldn’t be ascertained, perhaps because they weren’t from Pir Killay village – the location of the attack.”

In 2012 Sanaullah’s was one of a number of case studies submitted to the UN Human Rights Council for consideration. The report noted:

“Sanaullah was going to Miranshah from Mir Ali in a car with two friends. En route a drone aircraft fired at their vehicle, completely destroying it and killing everyone inside. The bodies were burnt so badly so as to be unrecognizable; Khairullah Jan identified his brother’s body only through his identity card.”

All sources agreed that a US drone was behind the strike.