(Previous Incident Code: B31 )

A suspected US strike in Mohammed Khel, north Waziristan, killed up to 14 civilians, including three children and one woman, in a strike that in total killed as many as 21 people, local and international media reported.

Following the strike, villager Bakht Ali later told news agencies:

“We found body parts scattered all over the place in the ruins, someone’s hand, someone’s leg.”

Most reports said that between 17 and 21 people were killed, hereof at least seven and as many as 14 were reported as civilians.  However, BBC cited officials who put the final death toll at between nine and 12. The killed were reportedly a mix of foreigners and locals.

Dawn, who reported that 14 local people were publicly buried, said that “‘seven members of a family were killed in the attack on the house of Abdur Rehman, an alleged Afghan militant from Afghanistan’s Khost province. The dead were Abdur Rehman himself, his three sons, a son-of-law and two other relatives.

Some reports alternatively named Afghan national Wazir Jan, who also died, as the house’s owner. However data collected by the tribal administration showed the house belonged to an Afghan national.

The Bureau of Investigative Journalism’ Waziristan researchers later named an additional five civilian men they said were among the other villagers killed in the attack, all belonging to the Dawar tribe. It was, however, not clear whether they were minors or adults.

Meanwhile, reports said that at least seven but as many as 16 militants were among the fatalities – the highest figures provided by BBC and Dawn, reported as either Arabs, al-Qaida members, Taliban fighters or from the al Badr group.

While most blamed US drones for carrying out the attack, Pakistani officials said there had been an explosion in the area, but was unable to confirm the cause, as reported by Dawn.

As of now, the US has not confirmed its involvement in the incident and Pakistan said there had been no foreign intrusion.