(Previous Incident Code: Ob309 )

In twin strikes CIA drones killed at least six people, including up to two reported civilians.

There were conflicting accounts of the events that night. Some sources reported a single strike that killed up to nine people. But multiple sources reported up to 17 missiles were fired on two nearby but separate targets at least 15 minutes apart. The first attack killed at least four in Haider Khel village shortly after midnight. A mud house, home to an ‘important Taliban leader‘, was reportedly destroyed. One report stated two Taliban commanders were killed, although without clarifying in which strike.

An al Qaeda operative was reportedly killed in the strike – a tactical trainer from Somalia or the United Arab Emirates according to Reuters. The alleged al Qaeda militant was named as Sheikh Yaseen al Somali, the deputy commander of al Qaeda training in Afghanistan and Pakistan. He reportedly fled across the Afghan border to North Waziristan two years earlier. Dawn named him as Sheikh Yaseen al Kuwaiti. Citing a senior security official, the paper said he had married a local tribesman’s daughter who also died in the strike along with their daughter.

The official added, “Eight missiles were fired on the compound he was living in with his family. His house has been turned into rubble.”

An anonymous US intelligence official told the Long War Journal al Kuwaiti was a ‘key al Qaeda paramilitary commander’ who was ‘very high up the food chain’. He was reportedly a top commander and trainer for al Qaeda’s military wing the Lashkar al Zil, or Shadow Army.

Militants cordoned off the area after the attack, removing the bodies. The News cautioned ‘there was no confirmation’ that ‘a foreign militant was among the slain people’. There were also reports that two Uzbeks had died. The drones attacked before President Obama announced his nominee for CIA director was John Brennan, his chief counterterrorism advisor and a leading proponent of the drone programme.

The attack came after retired General Stanley McCrystal told Reuters: ‘What scares me about drone strikes is how they are perceived around the world.’ He added, “The resentment created by American use of unmanned strikes… is much greater than the average American appreciates. They are hated on a visceral level, even by people who’ve never seen one or seen the effects of one.”

Michael Boyle, an Obama security adviser from the 2008 election campaign, also expressed misgivings about the drone programme. He said the use of armed drones needed to be challenged and the civilian casualty count was likely far higher than officially acknowledged, according to the Guardian. He said drones were “encouraging a new arms race that will empower current and future rivals and lay the foundations for an international system that is increasingly violent.”