(Previous Incident Code: Ob313 )

CIA drones reportedly killed at least six in a strike on the North-South Waziristan border. Two senior al Qaeda commanders, Abu Majid al Iraqi and Sheikh Abu Waqas, were reportedly killed. Abu Waqas (35) was said to be a Yemeni bomb making expert who was involved in “high profile attacks on US and Isaf forces”. Four alleged Uzbek militants also reported died. Pakistan security officials and tribal sources said drones hit one or two houses in the attack.

There were confused reports of the immediate aftermath. A Miranshah security official said militants surrounded the area after the attack, while News Tribe reported that drones lingering overhead delayed rescue work. But Xinhua said locals “rushed to the site and pulled out the bodies and injured from the rubble.” The area was reportedly “inhabited by the Hakimullah Mehsud-led TTPfighters and also foreigners.” This strike came the day after incoming CIA director John Brennan’s senate hearing. Brennan is viewed as one of the chief architects of the rapid expansion of the drone programme under Obama.

The following month conflicting reports of the attack emerged. Three anonymous US officials told the New York Times this and the previous strike (Ob310) were not carried out by the US. One official said, “We haven’t had any kinetic activity since January”. Sources told the paper the first strike had been carried out by the Pakistani military while the second could be “militants fighting among themselves.” A Pakistani military spokesman strongly denied the report, and the Long War Journal later cited US intelligence officials saying both strikes were ‘US operations’.