(Previous Incident Code: Ob204 )

A pre-dawn attack by confirmed US drones on a house and guesthouse in Spinwan, north Waziristan, killed up to 26 people, including up to nine women and children, and wounded up to another ten, local and international media reported

The death toll spanned from 20 to 26, across reports, where three to four women and four or five children were among the dead, as the BBC, the New York Times, the Wall Street Journal and many others stated. Meanwhile, reports said that the killed included at least 13 militants while others, such as Dawn, said that all 25 were allegedly militants.

The News reported further details of those killed, saying that “A local tribesman Muhammad Sharif owned the targeted house and Hujra [guest area]. Sharif is the first cousin of Maulvi Gul Ramzan, the head of the North Waziristan peace committee and a noted cleric who has negotiated peace talks between the government and local Taliban several times. Gul Ramzan and other members of the peace committee, including Hafiz Noorullah Shah, Malik Mamoor Khan and Malik Nasrullah Khan, have condemned the drone attack and claimed that all those killed and injured were common tribesmen. Maulvi Gul Ramzan told The News that the majority of the people who died in the attack were his close relatives. He denied reports that some local and foreign militants were staying at the Hujra at the time of the attack.”

Local elder Mehboob Jan also told the Wall Street Journal that “The entire compound was turned into rubble. Some women and children were also believed to have been killed in the strike.”

In an unprecedented move, an unknown “US official” told CNN at the time: “There is no evidence to support that claim [of civilian casualties] whatsoever.”  However, leaked US intelligence reports say otherwise. Reports obtained by McClatchy in 2013 showed the US recorded at least one civilian death in the strike. And an extensive field investigation by Associated Press confirmed that alongside some 20 militants, women and children also died:

“The strike killed 25 people, including 20 militants, three children and two women, said Mamrez Gul, who owns a shop near the site of the attack. The militants were staying in the guest room, and the civilians were sleeping in a nearby room that was also destroyed by the blasts. A funeral was held for the women and children, but the bodies of the militants were taken away, said Mamrez Gul. He said the women and children were relatives of the compound’s owner, Gul Sharif, a militant commander loyal to Bahadur. He survived the attack, said two villagers, speaking on condition of anonymity.”

Taxi driver Noor Habib Wazir and farmer Gul Paenda Khan also told AP they attended the funeral of the women and children. The Bureau of Investigative Journalism’s researchers in Waziristan reported some local dispute over whether women had been killed. They named one dead child as a 12-year old, Atif.

Finally, between two and ten people were reported wounded in the strike.

The strike took place as ISI chief Lt General Ahmed Shuja Pasha was in Washington DC, where he had already had a “shouting match” with CIA head Leon Panetta. He is said to have viewed this attack as “a slap” from the US government.