(Previous Incident Code: Ob177 )

In the first of three linked strikes (see Ob178 and Ob179), drones attacked two houses containing alleged militants in Ghulam Khan, north Waziristan, killing up to seven people and wounding at least two, international and local news reported.

The death toll spanned from four to seven, with most sources describing the killed as militants.  Eyewitness Ihsanullah Khan later told the Bureau of Investigative Journalism: “I had gone to Ghulam Khan with my friend. It was about 10am that a drone attacked one home and after two or three minutes the drone fired another missile on another home. Both of the houses were very close to us therefore we rushed there. Both of the houses were completely damaged. In the first home three Taliban were killed while in the second two Taliban were killed. The dead bodies in the first home were ok while the dead bodies in the second home were burnt. After some time other Taliban came there and took the dead bodies into their custody.”

However, because several sources merely reported that the death of five “people”, civilian harm can, as of not, not be ruled out.

Al Qaeda’s Nasir al-Wahishi was initially reported killed. But it subsequently emerged that far from dying in Pakistan, al Wahishi had been in his native Yemen. He had formed the al Qaeda franchise in Yemen, Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula, in January 2009 where he remained. He had been extradited to Yemen in 2003 and escaped from a Yemeni jail in 2006. He emerged in May 2011, claiming that the ’ember of jihad is brighter’ following the death of Osama bin Laden at the hands of US commandos.

All known sources said the strike was the work of a US drone.