(Previous Incident Code: Ob365 )

Between four and seven people were reportedly killed in a drone strike on a domestic compound reportedly being used by the Pakistan Taliban.

The dead were unnamed however various media outlets quoted unnamed officials claiming both Pakistanis and foreigners were killed.

This was the first strike for 34 days. It was the eighth strike this year and the sixth on the Shawal area. It came the day after Pakistan Air Force jets reportedly killed 15 people in the Shawal. The Pakistani military was reportedly preparing for a major offensive in the isolated region that has long been reportedly the home to a variety of armed groups.

The Shawal is also said to be a common smuggling route into Afghanistan. It straddles the boundaries between North and South Waziristan as well as Pakistan and Afghanistan.

Reuters reported between four and seven people were killed in the drone strike. “According to internal conversations of the militants, members of the Punjabi Taliban and foreign militants believed to be Arabs were killed in the drone strike,” an unnamed security official in Miranshah told the agency.

However two unnamed Pakistani officials told the Associated Press five people were killed, three of them Uzbeks and two Pakistani. An “important militant commander” was reportedly killed.

This strike came the day after Reuters reported the Pakistan army was preparing to launch an assault on the Shawal area. “It is a massive military action against the Taliban militants and their allies in the Shawal mountains,” according to an unnamed government official. A telephone engineer in the Shawal, Zainhullah, said: “Hundreds of trucks and pickups full of soldiers and weapons… are moving towards Shawal… There are roadblocks everywhere, no one can come in or go out. There is a complete curfew and phones lines are also being cut.” Several military officials told Reuters the Pakistani military had requested help from Afghanistan to prevent militants from fleeing over the border.

The Pakistan Ministry of Foreign Affairs condemned the CIA drone strike, saying in a statement: “We condemn such strikes which are a clear violation of Pakistan’s sovereignty and territorial integrity. These generate distrust among the local populace at a time when Operation Zarb e Azab is moving ahead decisively and the focus of the Government is shifting towards rehabilitation of the civilian population. We reiterate our call for a cessation of such strikes.”