(Previous Incident Code: Ob172 )

The first of three strikes in Khyber Agency on the same day came in the wake of an attack there the previous evening (Ob171). The two subsequent strikes are detailed in Ob173 and Ob174. The three strikes reportedly killed up to 54 people in total, making it one of the deadliest days in the US Pakistan drone program, as of 2010.

The first strike took place in Sandana, Tirah Valley, where two cars were destroyed, reportedly killing at least four, as reported by Tribune Express, but as many as 15, as reported by the Bureau of Investigative Journalism in January 2014 after publishing a secret Pakistani document that listed this drone strike killed 15 locals. The document said: “At about 1000 hours, two pickups at Sandhana Sepah area Tirah were attacked with two rockets from unknown destination (Drone attack).”

Moreover, between seven and 11 others were reported injured.

While most sources described the fatalities as militants, civilian harm cannot be excluded as some did not specify whether the victims were militants or civilians, such as the secret Pakistani document, describing the killed as “locals.”  Also, human rights groups said that there were “significant numbers of civilian casualties in the attacks,” as reported by Dawn.

It should be mentioned that others reported the strike as taking place at 8 AM.

US officials confirmed that the strikes in Khyber Agency were carried out by US forces as officials were quoted for saying that certain targets had successfully been hit.