(Previous Incident Code: Ob362 )

Six or seven people were killed when CIA drones targeted a house in the Shawal area of North Waziristan.

There strike either flattened a house, destroying a vehicle within the structure’s courtyard. Or the drones targeted a vehicle as it drove to a domestic building. The dead were reportedly loyal to Hafiz Gul Bahdur however their identities of the dead were not known however AFP reported four were said to be local men and three foreigners. Their nationality was not clear however an unnamed official told the agency they were thought to be central Asians. Officials told Radio Free Europe’s Pashto service some of the dead were Uzbeks but could not say how many.

This was the fifth strike of the year and the fourth reported in the Shawal area of Pakistan’s tribal region. The Shawal is an area of steep, thickly wooded valleys. It has long been reported as a stronghold for the various armed groups in Pakistan. The steep valleys and thick woods of the area make it an unattractive for a ground assault. This would have been compounded by the heavy covering of snow there, according to AFP.

The Pakistan military has been slowly moving ground forces through North Waziristan since it began its incursion in June 2014. Both US and Pakistani air strikes have hit the Shawal however it appeared it continue to be occupied by hostile armed groups into 2015.

This latest drone strike came the day after the Pakistan military claimed its jets had killed 76 alleged militants in strikes in the Datta Khel area of North Waziristan. The strikes reportedly targeted the TTP as Lashkar e Islam, a violent extremist group that historically was distinct from the TTP though that line may have blurred by the time of this drone strike.